MOD NOTE: OK, Anto gave me and Karen a great idea for this, and so people who have just started visiting the forum won't get confused by the MANY, MANY posts in the other thread.

This is the story here, and only Me, Karen, and Kris can add something to it, because this is a locked thread. OK?

Now I warn you in advance the story is looooong!

This is what we have so far....We'll put it in small posts so you guys don't get to scared by the very long post.


Story:
Title: Harry Potter and The Twilight Within
Genre: Angst/Romance/Horror/Mystery/Action/Adventure/Anything really!
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It's Harry's 6th year, what could happen?
Parings: H/Hr.
Disclaimer: We don’t own HP. So don’t sue us.

[b]This first installment is the collaborative work of

• Zanarkand
• Ice Phoenix
• harryloveshermione1999
• Facade
• Harry/Hermione 4eva
• ~*~Dracos Girl~*~
• Yumiko-Chan
• jackryan411
• karenkate_kitty
• draco_malfoys_luver

So here goes:

As dusk casts its bright red glow among the horizon, a young boy with a mop of unruly, black hair stares out towards the sunset. Harry swang back and forth on the wooden swing, the rusty chains creaking against the handle in disapproval as he stared out into space, lost in thought.

Why? Harry would ask himself over and over again. Why? Why did he have to die? Why did he leave me? Why was I so stupid? I should have used the mirror. Hermione was right. It's just... Hermione.
Looking towards the sunset, the shapes of buildings providing a frame, he thought, unknowingly sliding his hand through his already ruffled hair. Looking into the sky, the scrawny boy reflected on the happenings of the past year.

First; A swarm of hooded figures approaching him. A sharp pain in his head. He touched it, absent-mindedly. A stag, erupting from his wand. Chasing the hooded figures away. Turning, seeing a plump boy, cowering on the ground, the figure bending low over the boy. The stag chased down the figure, and the scrawny boy buckles under the pressure exerted. He was helping his cousin home, with a batty old woman along beside him, barking out words; "Don't put it away."

The events to follow that day with the dementors were not particularly pleasing. He had received an incredible scare from the Ministry about his use of magic against the dementors, forcing him to take part in a trial with some of the most biased judges he'd ever met. Harry also felt that he was forgotten by those who he felt cared for him. He was the last to find out about number twelve, Grimmauld Place, last to learn about Order of the Phoenix, and last to filled in about Voldemort's new actions. After everything he had been through with the Dark Lord, Harry felt being the last person to be filled in on the whole situation was an insult of some sort. After everything he's been through, he should have been the first to know instead of being kept in the dark.

Harry sighed to himself as he thought about the way he treated his friends last year. He felt disgusted with himself. He did have a right to be angry, but he had no right to take it out on Hermione, Ron, or anyone else. The thought of him making Hermione cry, flashed through his mind, and he felt his stomach tie itself into a knot. He hated it when she cried, but most importantly, he hated himself for causing her to do so.

Harry slowed the motion of the swing by dragging his feet onto the ground, and stood from the wooden seat once he came to a halt. He slowly pushed his hands into his pockets and continued to gaze into the sunset, absorbing the brilliant colors that filled the horizon. It was one of the prettiest things he'd seen in a long time.

He walked along Magnolia Cresent as he saw the garage where he first saw Sirius, he felt a familiar burning feeling coming the corner of his eyes. He kept walking, he was feeling weaker by the second, he just wanted to break down right there and cry. He had never cried ever since that day after he died.

He couldn't hold it any longer, he let the tears fall from his eyes as he arrived at 4 Privet Drive and he sat on the garden bench, wiped his tears away. He just sat there, Sirius dying flashing through his mind.

He heard soft footsteps coming toward him and he heard the voice, "You are a wimp. Still crying over your stupid dead godfather aren't you?" He looked up and he narrowed his eyes at Dudley.

He hastily brushed his hand across his eyes. Trying to avidly shield them from Dudley's penetrating stare.

"And you would know what it takes to be a pansy, Don't you Dudley?" Harry gruffly retorted.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Dudley clench his hands tightly over the folds of his shirt. ''At least I'm not here wallowing here on my own trying to hide away my tears, like a weak fool."

Harry sneered at him in a semblance of Snape's. He started chuckling, his laugh resounding in the desolate playground. Why he was doing this he did not know.

"Yes, and you are so brave and noble, that you beat up ten year olds just so you can raise your ego a notch?" Dudley strode over to him and hissed.

"I can do the same to you."

Harry gazed at him in an unflinching manner. His fingers lightly traced the outline of his wand that was tucked in the waistband of his faded jeans.

"Would you dare so, Dudley?"

"Yeah. Come on, I'll take you on!"

"Take me on huh? I'd like to see that." Harry said, still smiling for the unknown reason.

"Come on then." Dudley said taking up his Boxing stance.

"OK." Harry said pulling out his wand and twirling it idly in his fingers.

"No." Dudley said looking suddenly scared of his cousin "You can't use that. It's not fair."

"What in life is fair? Was my parents being murdered fair? Was my Godfather being wrongly imprisoned fair? Was my Godfather getting killed because of me fair? Was my best friend almost getting killed because of me fair? NOTHING'S EVER FAIR!!!" Harry exploded, finally letting out all of his pent up anger and frustration.

"Nothing is fair! Nothing! And when you finally decide to accept that the better! Life's a B*tch. GET OVER IT!"

His chest heaved heavily as his last exclamation echoed over the silent atmosphere. His fingers grasped his wand tightly. He absently tapped his wand against his palm.

His gaze caught up with the blood red sunset. His mind admired the beautiful yet morbid scene.

"Do you feel lucky, Dudley?"

His cousin broke of his stare with the object in his hand. Quickly he stammered," What- what are you going on about freak?"

"You don't realize how lucky you are Dudley," Harry whispered from about a meter away from him." You have everything I crave for, and yet you don't realize it."

"What," Dudley asked him in a confused tone," money?"

Harry gave a loud barking laugh.

"If you do not realize it yet. Then you don't deserve it."

Leaving his cousin to ponder his words. Harry hopped over the rusty fence and walked down the lonely street. Pondering once again his hopeful wishes and his misfortunes.

'Stupid git.' thought Harry as he put his wand back in the waistband of his jeans. 'He's even more stupid than I thought.'

Then just as he thought this he heard his name, "Harry! Wait!" He turned around and Dudley was looking at him, seriously,

"What do you want? To give me more advice on my miserable life?" Dudley shook his head,

"No, I just thinking about what you said, it's pretty hard isn't it?" Harry looked at Dudley and said,

"What do mean by, it's pretty hard isn't it? "

"I mean about you living your life with no family who loves you as your parents probably did, I just wanted to say I'm sorry." said Dudley looking at Harry.

"Why are you apologizing now?" asked Harry.

"Because no else is going to." said Dudley. Harry looked shocked, is this the

Dudley that used to punch me all the time? I guess he does need to apologize, it's just so weird hearing that from Dudley. But he's right no one's going to.

"Thanks Dudley." said Harry as they both he heard Aunt Petunia, "Time to come home Dudley!"

Dudley rolled his eyes as Harry smiled slightly. They both walked back to Privet Drive, feeling truce coming over both of them.

Before they entered the house, Dudley put his porky hand out and said, "Truce?" Harry nodded and said, "Truce." They shook hands as the door opened and Harry gasped, in the doorway stood a tall figure with a black slacks and a white dress shirt. The back of the figure was facing him, and yet...

Harry shook his head wildly.' No it couldn't be him', he thought to himself,' he is gone. gone.' Somehow he did not want to accept that. He never wanted to accept the fact that he was gone and will never come back.

"Harry! Don't be rude boy!" His Aunt's shrieking brought him back to the scene.

Aunt Petunia had her hands on her hips and with great disdain etched upon her face she waved her hand at the figure. The one that brought those horrid memories to surface his mind.

"This is Xander," His Aunt curtly pointed at the man that turned." He is here to talk to you.'

The figure turned and Harry carefully examined the man. He looked nothing like the one that was first brought to his mind. Perhaps his dreams were getting to him, making him see Sirius every where.

"I'll leave you two alone." His Aunt then grasped Dudley by the shoulder and quickly marched out of the room. As soon as they were gone, 'Xander' lowered his glasses and whispered.

"Wotcha, Harry."

"Tonks? Is that you?" Harry whispered back, his eyes growing slightly wide.

"Yes," she replied quietly as she gave him a bright grin. "Long time no see. How are you doing?"

"I've been better...but...what are you doing here? Why the disguise?"

"C'mon silly...what do you mean 'why the disguise'? Can't have anyone following me around, now can we," she smiled as she placed her hands on her hips. "With this disguise, no one will ever know that it's me."

It was a truly amusing sight, Harry had to admit. Never before had he ever seen Tonks in such a disguise. Tonks was a Metamorphmagus, a person who posessed the ability to change his or her appearance at will. She had been a recent addition to the Order of the Phoenix and to Harry's relief, had a very ecentric sense of humor.

"It sure fooled me," Harry said as he gave her an approved nod. "So...what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to check up on you...you know, see how you were doing. But also...I was asked to deliver this to you," she answered, her once cheerful tone dropped significantly as she reached into her pocket and pulled out an envelope.

"What is it?" Harry asked, somewhat worried by Tonks' sudden depression.

She didn't bother answering him. She lowered her head to avoid his eyes and simply held the letter out to him. Harry released a nervous sigh as he took the letter from her an examined it. His name was printed on the front and the seal that held it closed had the insignia of Gringott's Wizarding Bank.

Harry shuttered as he broke the seal and opened the envelope, slowly looking inside to find a folded parchment. He knew what it was. He knew why he received it. But he didn't want it. It meant that all hope had been lost. It meant that he was truly gone.

"They made a mistake," Harry hissed as his hands started to crinkle the envelope and parchment. "They don't know anything...they don't know."

"They do know, Harry," Tonks replied sympathetically as she placed her hand on his shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. "Gringotts always knows...I don't think they've ever been wrong."

"This time they're wrong!" Harry retorted, his voice rising with each word. "They have to be wrong...they have to be."

"I'm sorry, Harry," Tonks sighed as she took her hand off his shoulder and gave him a saddened look. "I'm oh so very sorry."

Harry felt his tears return to him as he hesitantly pulled out the parchment from the envelope and unfolded it. He shut his eyes tight before reading the first word, allowing a few tears to escape as he took several slow and deep breaths.

"You have to read it," Tonks whispered. "You can't hide from this."

Harry took in one last breath and upon exhaling, he opened his eyes and focused on the first line of the parchment.

"Dear Harry James Potter
As you probably don’t know Sirius Black has signed a contract stating that if he died you get all of his Wizardry money at Gringott's Wizarding Bank. As we found out that he has died, his money was moved into your volt. Have a wonderful day,

Gringott's Wizarding Bank!”

Harry tried to stop his tears from falling, but he couldn't believe it, Sirius...who was a great companion, friend, and almost a father to him...he can't help thinking...Sirius is really....gone from them forever...

'Why? Why does this always...happen to me..?' Harry thought croakily to himself, as Tonks waited for him to finish reading the letter he was holding. Tonks thought that he was still reading, that's why she lean her back on the wall for a moment. 'I...I really should have belived Hermione back then...' Harry then thought, This is all my fault, thought Harry as more tears wetted the letter he was holding in his hand, 'I'm really a FOOL and a reckless person...' he can't take it anymore, he thought that if his Mum didn't bear him, maybe his parents wouldn't die at all, maybe if he was not born in this world anyway then Sirius wouldn't be convicted of such murder and if he wasn't that popular he wouldn't have had his name in the Goblet of Fire then...

"Harry, are you alright?" Tonks asked worriedly, looking at his face with concern.

"Yeah, I’m fine,” Harry replied quickly as he refolded the refolded the parchment and placed it back into the envelope. "So…he’s really gone. Sirius is really gone."

“I’m really sorry, Harry. You have no idea how sorry I am.”

“It’s not your fault,” Harry replied as he wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. It’s my fault…it has always been my fault!

“Sirius did leave a will for you,” she said softly, watching his eyes harden again as they did when he read the letter from Gringotts. “I wanted to bring it with me for you…but it was made in a very unusual way and can’t be moved out of the headquarters.”

Harry gave her a confused look and she knew that she did a poor job in explaining the situation. “Just don’t worry about it for now, Harry. I just wanted to let you know that a will does exist and I know that Sirius really wanted you to hear it.”

“Hear it?”

“Oh…I mean…don’t worry about it. You’ll see it eventually. I’m sorry but, I must be on my way,” she said as she quickly retrieved her large dark trench coat from the Dursleys’ coat closet. “I need to get back to headquarters. There is going to be a big meeting tonight.”

“Oh okay. Er…Can I go with you?” Harry asked, anxious to know what Dumbledore and Order were going to plan. He also hoped that by helping the Order, he could redeam himself for causing the death of his godfather. “I want to help out with the Order...no, I need to help the Order.”

“I know you want to help…but you’re not allowed to leave Privet Drive,” she replied with a frown. “Well…not yet anyways.”

“When will I be able to leave?”
She gave him a bright grin as she walked towards the front door of the Dursley home. “Just say that you’ll be celebrating your birthday with us…but until then, you need to sit tight and stay out of trouble. Don’t go wondering around like you did today. It’s not safe.”

“I won’t,” Harry replied halfheartedly.

“Okay then. I will see you later,” she said as she walked out of the house, accidentally stumbling on the ‘Welcome’ rug. “Bloody thing…came out of no where!”

Harry released a soft grin as he watched Tonks walk into the front yard and disappear with a cloud of smoke. He placed the envelop into his back pocket and crossed his arms, his mind circling around everything that had just taken place. He was somewhat thrilled about the idea of spending his birthday with the Order, but felt sick for feeling any form of happiness after what he had done to Sirius. Whichever the case maybe, his birthday wasn't going to be for another three weeks, and he knew it would take a miracle to survive at Privet Drive without any of his close friends.

Harry walked towards the stairs and began to climb them when he heard the telephone ring. As usual, he ignored it and continued to make his way up the stairs until he heard Dudley call for him.

“It’s for you, Harry!” he shouted from the kitchen.

“For me?” Harry said to himself as he hurriedly made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen where the Dursleys were currently getting ready for dinner.

“It’s a girl…Harmony, I think she said her name was,” Dudley said as he handed the receiver to Harry, puzzling his parents with his sudden kindness towards his oddball cousin.

“Harmony?” Harry asked with a confused look as he took the receiver and placed it against his ear. “Er…this is Harry.”

“Hey, it’s me,” he heard a soft voice spoke.

“Hermione?”

"Hi, Harry," said the voice of his best friend.

"Hermione, why did you call?" Harry asked, puzzled, "Nothing bad's happened, has it?"

He heard a laugh on the other end.

"No, Harry, nothing bad has happened," she said, "is it really that hard to believe I just wanted to talk to you?"

Harry felt himself blushing and was very thankful that Hermione couldn't see him.

"Er...right," said Harry awkwardly, "what do you want to talk about?"

He could almost see Hermione's smile as she answered.

"I can see that you're not used to phone conversations."

"Hey, I haven't really ever had one," Harry replied defensively.

"Harry, we can just talk about the same things we do by owl post," she said.

"Well then, how have your holidays been so far?"

"Fine," Hermione said, "although I've had to have Madam Pomfrey send me those ten potions for me to take. I thought I was fine and came back home without them...but on the second day of the summer I started getting that sharp chest pain again, so I had to write to her for those potions."

Harry picked up a piece of paper and crumpled it angrily. This too had been his fault. If he hadn't stupidly run off to the Department of Mysteries, not only would Sirius not have died, Hermione wouldn't have been afflicted with the common chest pain she had acquired since Antonin Dolohov had hit her with a spell deep in the bowels of the Ministry of Magic.

"Are you all right, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"I'm fine," sighed Harry, "I just wish I'd listened to you last year."

"Harry," said Hermione firmly, "even I thought that the best course of action was to go to the Department of Mysteries when Kreacher said Sirius wasn't there. Remember, I told you you that last year? If we checked and he wasn't there, that I'd do whatever it took to get him back? I knew that something might have been wrong, but when Kreacher told us that Sirius wasn't there, I was behind you completely."

Harry nodded, but then realized Hermione couldn't see him so he said, "Yeah, I guess. I o-only wish he was still here."

"Harry, he lives on in you. I'm sure he's watching from somewhere and is very proud of the man you've become."

"Hermione?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Anyway, you know what's kind of weird is that Dudley's been acting nice to me all of a sudden," Harry said, deciding to change the subject.
He could feel Hermione shrugging, "Maybe he realized that he wouldn't want someone that close to him to die either and so he empathized with you. Besides, he does owe you his life."

"I guess you're right. I can't say that this isn't a good thing."

"Oh, Harry, I've got to go. I'll call you later. Bye!"

"Good-bye, Hermione," he whispered.

He hung up the phone and walked away, feeling more than slightly better.
Retreating from the lounge, he walked up the stairs, leaving behind his uncle's calling of; "Don't use up our phone line again." As he got to the creaky landing, he crossed it, barely making a sound because of his size. He could easily cross, unknown to his relatives. As he was opening his bedroom door, a sharp pain came at the back of his head. He slithered down, turning, and leaving a thin trail of blood stain the white door.

Collapsing in a heap, he just managed to see his attacker, before he fell unconscious.

He saw Kreacher 'but what was he doing in privet?' he asked himself.

Harry blacked out but he mysteriously found himself by the foot of the stairs again. With numerable thoughts rumbling in his head.

Harry found himself drawn back to his room.

'I really miss my friends and I really miss you Sirus,' he sighed.

Hedwig swooped inside his room through his open window. She dropped a small box on Harry's bed and stood by her cage.

"What's this you got for me Hedwig?" he asked as he took the box from his bed.

The Snowy Owl held out her leg with a note tied around it.
Harry took the letter and went on reading it:

“Dear Mr. Potter,

You should have had this years ago but I feared it wasn't the right time. You'll know when to use it when the right time comes. Your mother gave this to your father.”

There was no name as to who sent it but he had an idea whom it was from. He opened the box and inside was a ring. It had an emarald stone placed on a golden bond. He stared at it for a while and somehow he felt better. He put the ring on and it was a perfect fit.

"I wonder if anything would be the same if I still have my parents with me?" he said to himself.

He looked at the ring on his finger. He thought he saw it glow for a second.

'I'm seeing things. I think I should go and eat dinner,’ he told himself.

At the table his aunt Petunia was curiously looking at the ring on his finger.

"Where did you get that, Harry?" she asked.

“I-I really don't know. I got it in a letter that didn't have a name.” Harry replied vaguely as he looked up at his Aunt.

”You little liar!” she snapped irratably at him. “Do you seriously think me stupid enough to believe that?”

Harry fought with himself to not say yes, and eventually he managed to say in a very restricted tone; “It's true. I'll go get the letter if you really want. Whoever it was though, said that my mother gave it to my father. Do you have a problem with that?” Harry asked, trying to remain calm.

Aunt Petunia glared at him before retorting with “Look you silly little boy. Just because those freaks told us to be nice to you, doesn't mean we can't punish you. I happen to know that that was * my * ring, when I was sixteen. I lost it, and one day your stinking mother came back with it after a year at that nutter school you attend.” She spat, turning around, she proceeded up the stairs and called Harry's uncle.
”I just got it!” Harry shouted behind her, trying to lessen the trouble he'd get into.


-------------

That's it for now.....it's not the whole story....no where near, but it's the start.
More to be posted soon.

Mod Note: his is the second part of the post that we’ve compiled. There will be more to come next time…

~Karen

The Twilight Within Chapter 2

collaborative work of

• Ice Phoenix
• romulus lupin
• draco_malfoys_luver
• Zanarkand
• jackryan411
• Cdelight
• karenkate_kitty
• ponderingprefect

The trouble he had found himself in had been immense. His aunt and uncle had refused to let him eat, and his cousin had burst into his room at the worst times, before running off telling his uncle he was writing letters. Dudley looked very smug indeed when he had the pleasure of telling Harry his girlfriend had called, and that she had been shouted at by uncle Vernon.

Absent-mindedly, Harry clenched his fist, but he was still no match for Dudley. That night, at around eight, the news came on. Harry had been allowed to watch the news recently, but this time, all he heard was Dudley's scoffing on sweets, Petunia's horrible singing, and Vernon Dursley's plodding footsteps along the landing.

His uncle had thrown Hedwig's cage out of the window, after she had been making a racket, and locked his wand in a draw. Harry smirked to himself; he had caused this much uproar with just wearing a ring. Hedwig hadn't been though, she continued to make a racket as ten o'clock rolled around.

It was then that Vernon Dursley checked he was in bed, but no, he was sitting at his desk, writing a letter to Hermione about the ring. He still had to keep it short and coded though, he would tell her how if he managed to get to use the telephone.

'Go to bed, unless you don't want to go to that ruddy school of yours this year.' Uncle Vernon said, triumphantly.
'Too bad for you I am going then.' Harry slipped out. He could see his uncle's face turning purple with rage, the vein at the neck popping out of his rounded, podgy head. He was scared, he had only seen his uncle like this once, and he had barely seen him, he had run away, and... For the first time, caught a glimpse of his Godfather.

'That's for me and Petunia to decide, boy.' Vernon said, stepping closer to Harry, his voice containing the utmost rage. His eyes were almost popping out of their sockets, and, just to stress the words he was saying, he spat over Harry.
'Then it wouldn't interest you to know, that I won't be here for my birthday?' Harry said, livid. He had let rage get the better of him. Once again, he was clenching his fist.

Uncle Vernon immediately backed off. He turned sharply on his heel, in fact, it was the most athletic thing Harry had ever seen his uncle do before. Just hearing his uncle mutter a "fine" before he had disappeared, he went to bed, once again brushing the pain in the back of his head with his hand.

Uncle Vernon immediately backed off. He turned sharply on his heel, in fact, it was the most athletic thing Harry had ever seen his uncle do before. Just hearing his uncle mutter a "fine" before he had disappeared, he went to bed, once again brushing the pain in the back of his head with his hand.

Cold, clammy hands were wrapped around his neck, tightening inexorably and instinctiely, he fought back, trying to swim out of the darkness that was pulling him down, his hands struggling with those cold, cold hands, his body shaking and struggling to force air down his constricted throat.

Through his blurry vision, he thought he saw red, red eyes glaring down at him and he froze. 'Voldemort!' he thought. 'But that can't be ... he cannot get into my room ... Dumbledore said that ...'

He was at the edge of an abyss, staring down into the cold, dark depths. He felt himself drawing in, gathering his strength to take the leap -- to plunge into that welcoming darkness and to let the world around him go ...

And felt himself being pulled back, the hands around his neck loosening and he could feel air rushing out of his lungs in a whoosh -- and fresh, clean air flowing into the vacumn of his emptied lungs.

A single cough came from his bruised throat and he opened his eyes to his darkened room and saw, through his still blurry vision, two small figures struggling in a corner. His arms flailed out -- one hand going for his dresser and glasses, the other desperately searching beneath his pillow for his wand ...

'CRACK' -- one of the struggling figures hit the wall with a sound that would have woken the dead. Glasses on finally, his eyes started to focus when he felt something leap on his bed and he threw up his hands to fend off the attacker.

"Harry Potter! Harry Potter! Is Harry Potter all right?"

"Dobby?" He sat up in bed, staring into the luminous eyes of the house-elf for a second before glancing to the side where he saw Kreacher on his back, staring up at the ceiling, a greenish stain on the wall above his head and he turned back to Dobby.

Before he could say a word, there was a pounding on the door and Vernon Dursley's voice could be heard, "What's going on in there?"

Before he could say a word, there was a pounding on the door and Vernon Dursley's voice could be heard, "What's going on in there?"
'Nothing!' Harry replied perhaps a bit too quickly and loudly for his own good.
'Well then shut the hell up and let the rest of us get some sleep!' his Uncle roared through the door, making Harry think 'it's allright for you though, isn't it?'
As his Uncle walked away, Harry turned his attention back to Dobby who was cowering at the end of Harrys bed.
'What is it Dobby?' Harry enquired.
'Harry Potter, sir! Dobby comes to sees you because you are once again in graves danger sir!' his high pitched squeaky voice came.
'Dobby, if you don't mind, can you please keep your voice down.' Harry pleaded with him in a whisper.
'S-sorry sir!' Dobby replied timidly.
'It's okay. Now, how am I in grave danger this year? We're not going to have you try and save my life again all year are we?'
Dobby giggled.
'N-no sir. This times though,' he continued in a more somber tone, 'it's not just you sir. It's you ands your friend Hermy- Hermy...'
'Hermione?' Harry supplied. 'Why, how come Hermione is in trouble now?'
'Hermione?' Harry supplied. 'Why, how come Hermione is in trouble now?'

Dobby started to shudder uncontrollably, his large round eyes staring down at the covers on Harry’s bed.

“Dobby…what is it?,” Harry begged quietly as tried to get him to look at him. However he refused, constantly moving his head to avoid eye contact. Harry released a frustrated sigh and focused his attention on the unconscious Kreacher. His fists tightened and he slowly rose from his bed.

“It has to do something with him, doesn’t it Dobby?”

Dobby nodded slowly, his eyes still focused back on Harry’s covers. Harry slowly made his way towards Kreacher, trying to make as little noise as possible. He cursed his uncle for locking his wand in the kitchen drawer (sorry…romolus, I know you stated that his wand was under his pillow, but from Ice Phoenix’s post, it had been locked in a drawer by his uncle). If Kreacher were to wake and become hostile, magic would be the only thing that could save him and an apparently panicky Dobby.

Harry closed the distance between him and the house-elf and almost gagged from the putrid odor that surrounded him. Harry held his nose and examined the house Kreacher, wondering why he would be his bedroom. He vaguely recalled seeing him earlier that day, but was unable to remember if it had been some sort of twisted dream or reality.

“I need some answers,” Harry said to himself softly, “and I’m not going to get them if you’re unconscious.” Harry then turned over to Dobby, who was now staring at him worriedly. “Dobby, please go downstairs to the kitchen. You will find a drawer that has a large lock on it. Could you please unlock it and get my wand for me?”

“If Harry Potter sir wishes Dobby to do so,” he squeaked as he pushed himself off the bed. “Please don’t touch him, Harry Potter sir…he is dangerous…Dobby feels very scared around him.”

“I won’t do anything,” Harry replied. “Go get my wand and be quiet. Hide if you see any of the Dursley’s coming.”

Dobby nodded obediently and snapped his fingers, disappearing with a cloud of smoke. Harry released his nose, now somewhat able to handle the stench that was expelled by Kreacher and slowly waved his hand over the house-elf's face.

“Why are you – ” Harry was cut off by a low cry. Kreacher had lunged forward at him, desperately taking a hold of Harry’s right hand. “Get off!”

Harry quickly rose to his full height and pulled back, trying to wrench his arm free from the Kreacher’s surprisingly powerful grip. Without a second of hesitation, Harry’s foot flew forward, kicking Kreacher square in the stomach.

The soft groan escaped the winded house-elf as he released Harry’s hand and stumbled onto the floor, unconscious again. Harry took in several deep breaths as he massaged his aching hand, completely stunned by Kreacher’s sudden attack.

“What was that all about?” Harry asked himself as he looked at the small cuts that mangy elf had left on his hand. He was examining one particular deep cut when eyes suddenly focused on the thing that was around his finger. “He can’t be…is he after this ring?”

“What was that all about?” Harry asked himself as he looked at the small cuts that mangy elf had left on his hand. He was examining one particular deep cut when eyes suddenly focused on the thing that was around his finger. “He can’t be…is he after this ring?”
There was a soft creak as the door opened and Dobby slipped back into the room, Harry's wand clutched in his right hand.
"Dobby, what's he doing here? What are you doing here? What's the trouble with Hermione?"
Dobby just shook his large head fearfully.
"Come on, Dumbledore would want you to tell me, wouldn't he?" Harry asked desperately.
Dobby shook his head again, "Dobby is here against Dumbledore's order, Harry Potter sir."
Harry felt some of his old anger for Dumbledore from last year swelling again. So Harry couldn't know again, could he? Hadn't he learned from last year? Wanting some answers, Harry grabbed Dobby by his front.
"Dobby, what's happened to Hemione? I swear that if anything's happened to her---I'll----"
Dobby shook his head for a third time, this time with large tears dropping from his eyes and he wailed, "Dobby cannot tell you! Dobby was forbidden!"
"Damn it, Dobby! If you don't tell me now, I'm going to take my Firebolt and fly over to Grimmauld Place myself!"

"I'm going. You can't stop me." Harry said defiantly. Dobby didn't reply but merely shook his head furiously. "No. No. Harry Potter cannot. It is too dangerous!!"
"Well then what am I suppose to do? I can't just sit here, and you won't tell me anything!" Harry yanked his hair in frustration. "Listen Dobby. I need to go there. Hermione is in trouble. I can sense it." Harry paced. Dobby continued to sob.
Without waiting for another reply, Harry flung his door open and went to retrieve his broom and invisiblity cloak. He returns a few minutes later. Then looking defiantly at Dobby, pushed open his window.
Instantly, a rush of warm summer hair met his forehead. Harry, feeling refreshed, climbed on his broomstick.
Dobby moved nimbly in front of Harry and said sternly, "Harry Potter..."

"I cannot let you go there, Harry Potter sir. It is not safe?" Dobby said stuttering as Harry already mounted on his broom attempted to fly out the window but couldn't.

"What did you do Dobby? Why can't I fly out the window?" Harry blurted eyeing Dobby with deep dismay.

"A barrier sir like the one Dobby put in the platform entrance," Dobby answered. "Hermy sir is in good hands. She's being guarded like yous sir," Dobby added.

"Who did Dumbledore sent to her?" Harry asked in frustration.

"She's in her house sir and Winky was sent there too sir," Dobby replied uncertainly and was going to make his way to the opened drawers to punish himself from telling Harry.

"Don't even think about hurting yourself Dobby," Harry scolded him. "So Winky's there at the Grangers. Does Hermione know she's in danger and what kind of danger are we talking about here?" he asked.

"Winky was given strict orders sir to guard Harry Potter's friend. Winky is better sir not always drunk anymore sir," Dobby replied pacing around the room with uncertainty.

Harry sat on his bed. Dobby didn't answer his questions about Hermione and Kreacher was still lying on the floor unconscious.

"I will get rid of Kreacher sir, when he wakes up. Very bad servant sir, very bad," Dobby said.

"He doesn't have any masters, does he? I mean Sirius is dead and he wouldn't folow order from Tonks. Why is Kreacher after me?" Harry asked looking sternly at the unconscious house elf.

"My old masters sir. Kreacher serve them sir. He said they'll take his head off if he gets the ring sir," Dobby said.

"But why do they want the ring?" Harry asked again staring at his bruised hand.

"Not for me to say, Harry Potter sir. Headmaster will tell you sir," Dobby refused to answer any more questions.

"But what about Hermione does she know?" Harry persisted.

"Not for me to say sir...." Dobby muttered

Harry flung himself onto his bed. His worry was plucking at his soul. Inside, his heart was beating slower and slower, every second he thought about the trouble Hermione might be in. The cloudy night sky outside was echoing the gaping hole left in his heart from the loss of Sirius. It would be like having the cold, clammy hands of death squeezing every last breath out of him if he were to find out anything had happened to Ron or Hermione.

The burning sensation in the depths of his heart to save either of his friends was the only thing keeping him from giving up, but now, after all the torment he had suffered, all the pain he had caused himself, his strength, not for him, but for his friends, was deteriorating with every last second of the shadowed present.

It was as if a veil had been cast over him, blinding him from knowing anything, and slowly suffocating his feelings, senses, and desires. His will to live knowing his friends were in trouble, and he could not do anything about it was torturing his soul. The reality was, he was clueless. He was ceasing to be a human being… Soon, he would be no more than someone like Voldemort…

It was as if a veil had been cast over him, blinding him from knowing anything, and slowly suffocating his feelings, senses, and desires. His will to live knowing his friends were in trouble, and he could not do anything about it was torturing his soul. The reality was, he was clueless. He was ceasing to be a human being… Soon, he would be no more than someone like Voldemort…

And with this horrifying thought running through his head, Harry fell into an uneasy sleep and had the same dream that he'd been having since the begining of the holidays.

Cold, clammy hands were wrapped around his neck, tightening inexorably and instinctiely, he fought back, trying to swim out of the darkness that was pulling him down, his hands struggling with those cold, cold hands, his body shaking and struggling to force air down his constricted throat.

Through his blurry vision, he thought he saw red, red eyes glaring down at him and he froze. 'Voldemort!' he thought. 'But that can't be ... he cannot get into my room ... Dumbledore said that ...'

He was at the edge of an abyss, staring down into the cold, dark depths. He felt himself drawing in, gathering his strength to take the leap -- to plunge into that welcoming darkness and to let the world around him go ...


'Harry Potter sir!' Dobby's voice cried through Harry's head, bringing him slowly back to the land of the living. 'Harry Potter sir!' he cried again as Harry sat up grogily.

'WhatizitDobby?'

'You, yous was screaming sir. Y-you screams about he-who-must-not-be-named!' Dobby trembled. 'Harry Potter sir, Kreacher is wakings. I musts gets him backs to headquarters sir. Dobby will be backs sir. Be careful sir.'

Harry watched bewildered as Dobby vanished into a puff of smoke once again...

Harry green eyes moved around the room quickly and with the back of his hand, he wiped off the sweat that had accumulated on his forehead. He grimaced at his pillow noticing that it had become drenched with sweat. Then he grabbed his glasses from the bedside table and jumped out of bed, not wanting to return to the abysmal dreams that awaited him in sleep.

He marched to his bedroom door staring at the mirror that hung over it and stared at himself in the mirror. Upon first examination all he could see was the sweat that had dampened his hair and made his skin cry. He frowned, feeling ashamed and then he remembered the dream again. He could almost feel the cold clammy hands again. He could see the red eyes boring into his own and he could still feel himself falling into the darkness where Voldemort resided.

He shook his head violently for a short moment and then examined his face again, bringing his fingertips to his eyes, nose, ears, lips and cheeks. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he leaned his forehead against the mirror.

"It's all right, really," said a very logical voice in his head.

Harry smiled knowing who it belonged to and he let it continue, "You're still Harry."

Mod Note: OK, here's the third installment of the story. More to come soon....
~Bec

The people who wrote this part are:

• Zanarkand
• Romulus lupin
• Draco_malfoys_luver
• Wonderjoe
• Alexanderanl
• Scribbler
• Ponderingprefect
• Karenkate_kitty
• Facade

Hermione, Harry thought to himself, all the tension in his body slowly loosening at the sound of her voice.
“Relax, Harry,” her voice gently echoed in his head. “You are going to be all right. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
A small smile formed on Harry’s face as he slowly made his way towards his desk. He quietly took a seat in his chair and turned on his small lamp. He looked down at his unfinished letter to Hermione and quickly skimmed over it. Knowing that sleep wasn’t something he wanted to return to at the moment, he decided to finish his letter, being sure to include his recollection of his dream in it.
Dobby returned to Harry’s room several hours later and was incredibly shocked to find him awake. Harry hadn’t moved from his desk since the moment he sat down. He had spent the entire time writing to Hermione.
“Harry Potter sir!” Dobby squeaked as he quickly ran to him. “Sir needs to be in bed! Harry Potter sir must get his rest.”
“Oh…it’s okay Dobby,” Harry replied with a soft yawn, his eyes finally moving away from the novel-length letter he had written to Hermione.
“But sir, Dobby doesn’t want Harry Potter sir to feel tired later,” Dobby pleaded.
“All right…all right,” Harry sighed as he tossed his now dull quill onto his table. His eyes focused back on the letter and his mouth dropped. He had no idea that he had written so much. Writing to Hermione had always been very relaxing for him, but never before had he ever gotten carried away.
“Harry Potter sir?”
“Er…yes b-bed,” Harry stuttered as he shook his head and smiled at Dobby. He slowly rose from his chair and released a loud groan as he stretched his body, several bones throughout his body cracking. He placed his glasses onto his bedside table and crawled into his bed, pulling his blanket over him.
“Dobby will stay with Harry Potter sir,” Dobby said with a warm smile as he took a sat down bedside Harry’s bed and leaned against it.
“Dobby…” Harry said softly. “I know you can’t tell me anything…but Hermione is okay…right?”
“Yes, Harry Potter sir,” Dobby mumbled back, sleep already taking him. “Winky be watching Hermy. Hermy will be safe.”
“Okay,” Harry yawned as he closed his eyes. “Good night, Dobby.”

*

The next three weeks passed painfully slowly for Harry.
Much of the time was spent doing chores around the house – a task made somewhat easier with the assistance of Dobby, although this often involved a major operation involving his invisibility cloak to ensure that no one in the neighborhood would see a House Elf working beside him.
The weeks were also made somewhat easier with the unexpected visit of Mad-Eye Moody the day after Kreacher’s attack to check up on Harry. One look at Moody’s magical eyeball had turned the Dursley’s into quivering masses of jelly – and saw Dudley running to retrieve Hedwig’s cage from the garden where Vernon had thrown it the day before.
The downside to this was that Moody was not a fount of information. When asked about Kreacher, Moody would only say that “the matter was being handled.” Asked about Hermione: “The matter is being handled, Potter.” Pressed about Ron and the Weasleys, “The matter will be handled, Potter.”
Moody had also decided to take Hedwig away with him to headquarters, pointing out that a snowy owl in any neighborhood would be an indication that someone magical lived in the area – and chances were that it was Harry Potter's snowy owl. Harry didn’t even bother to question this, knowing full well what the answer would be: “Eternal vigilance, Potter!”
He did have Dobby, however. The House-Elf was proving useful as both house-assistant and companion – Harry no longer had to talk to the walls or to a silent Hedwig (whose only response to him was to flutter her wings, give a hoot of anger, derision or hilarity depending on her mood). More importantly, Dobby was also proving quite useful as a mailman, bringing his letters (starting with the first ever novel-length missive he’d penned that night to Hermione) and bringing back their replies promptly.
Unfortunately, the letters from his friends did not provide him with any real news on what was happening in the wizarding world. Ron’s letters focused more on what was happening with Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes (where he and Ginny had summer jobs clerking for the Twins) and precious little about what was happening with the Order and Voldemort.
Hermione, on the other hand, had even less information to offer. Her parents had taken her with them on a Scandinavian tour, and her letters were more of a travelogue than anything else. (He’d been tempted to ask her to bring him back a Crumple-Horned Snorkack but refrained from doing so, unwilling as he was to risk her wrath even from such a distance.)
And so the days passed slowly – doing chores around the house, watching the skies for owls, spending the nights surreptitiously listening to the news for anything which may hint of Voldemort’s activities, and counting down the days until he could leave Privet Drive and join up with his friends.
There was one day he wasn’t looking forward to, however: his sixteenth birthday.
Last year was a disaster: kept like a mushroom in the dark for weeks, he'd been so angry at his friends that he'd thrown away the two boxes of Honeydukes chocolates they had sent him (something he regretted that night when Aunt Petunia served him a wilted salad for dinner).
What would this birthday bring him?
He didn't have long to wait, and Harry wasn't really looking forward to the day that lay ahead of him. His birthdays never held anything special in them, but today, he was going to be back with the Order, and for one reason or another, he was not looking forward to it.
No matter how desperately he wanted to see Hermione and the Weasleys again, Remus too, he couldn't fight down the sneaking suspicion that something wasn't right.
He was reluctantly begining to lie back down again as he saw that the time on his clock read 2:30 am, when there came a loud scream from downstairs that did not belong to one of the Dursleys.
Harry grabbed his wand, which was sitting under his bed, and walked cautiously to the door, listening for any sort of footsteps. He couldn't hear much, but the muffled sounds of scared voices and excited ones confused the young wizard. Suddenly, the sound of footsteps hitting the stairs could be heard, and the next thing Harry saw was the banging of his door against the wall, a squeal and a blur as Harry was attacked by the blur who had an awful lot of bushy hair......
"Oh, Harry, it's so good to see you again! I was afraid I wouldn't get back in time to be able to help get you from the place, but i did, and was able to floo here and i scared Dobby! Oh, and the Dursleys were so surprised, they had Moody and Professor Lupin open the door as soon as i got there, and when they saw Dobby they lined the Dursleys up on the wall and patted them down for any of your things!" 'The sight of the Ex-Auror Mad-Eye Moody patting down the likes of his whale of a cousin Dudley suddenly flashed in his mind, and Harry suppressed a snort.' "I was so glad to get your letter, it was a joy to read! It was lovely in Scandinavia, but it made it seem so much better when I read your letter! Oh and your dream! Ohmygosh Harry? Are you ok?"
Hermione said this all in one breath, and took deep breaths as she steps back from Harry, an observant expression on her face. Harry recalled his past three weeks, and was about to answer when Moody and Lupin entered the room.
"Harry!" exploded a joyful, voice of Lupin, "How are you?"
Harry felt a sensation of flowing relief and familiar (but not popular) "everything-is-going-to-be-ok" feeling. He smiled faintly, thankful to Lupin for his visit, and replied cautiously, "Fine, how are..."
"Potter, Granger, we have to get a move on," a savvy voice barked from the background as Moody's magical eye concentrated on the two friends. The four figures moved towards the staircase, and Harry could not possibly be happier to leave the Dursleys as he descended those darned steps, above that darned cupboard, all tied in the symphony of this darned house.
"Harry, the dream...tell me about it," he detected Hermione's cautious whisper to his left.
"Oh, I'll tell you about it later," he replied uneasily, a bit afraid of being overheard.
"Moody doesn't have a magical ears, Harry," she chuckled softly, "Just an eyaaaaaaaaaa!!!" Hermione tripped over a step on the staircase and was sent flying down when Harry, like a cat in the darkness, swiftly caught her by her now extending away arm and pulled her close.
Lupin turned around at the loud commotion and scowled at the two, muttering, "Well, if they hadn't heard Ron's stepping on a mousetrap downstairs, now they'll be awake for sure!"
"Ron's here?" Harry uttered excitedly, letting go of Hermione's waist and taking her by the arm, explaining "Just in case you decide to fall again."
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE???!???" rude bellowing exploded from a bedroom upstairs.
Moody moved quickly to grab Harry and Hermione and pulled them down the remainder of the stairs. “C'mon! Quickly!” he growled as he led the two past the kitchen and out the back door.
”What happened? We heard shouting.” Nymphadora Tonks asked as she came stumbling forward across the uneven drought stricken turf.
”It was nothing Tonks, now quick Potter... where are your things?” Moody growled.
”U-uhhh... Upstairs?” Harry said with a pained look on his face.
”Potter...” Moody's gravelly voice scolded before whipping out his wand. “Accio.” he muttered. There were screams and shouts erupting from upstairs and moments later, Harry's trunk came flying out the back door. Moody set to work putting a dissilusion charm on Harry and gave Harry his firebolt. “Now Hermione's riding with you, cos we don't have enough brooms, and she kept screaming at Ron on the way here. Oh, and yes, you can say a quick hello to Weasley before we head off.”
“But, Hermione... She doesn't like flying. Shouldn't she fly with one of you?” Harry asked, quite unsure of everything. He couldn't wait to get out of his home, but he hadn't flown for such a long time, he was afraid.
As the cold air of night ripped at his legs, he shivered. A reverberating yell made him jump, and the shiver tingled up his spine. Harry felt the cold night air penetrating his skin, the cold sweeping through him, mercilessly. He crossed his arms, and his head started vibrating.
As the light's flicked on inside Number four, his heart burned with the desire to flee. But, once again, the flame of desire was
extinguished as he felt yet another rush of cold sweep up his spine.
“I’d much rather fly with you,” Hermione interjected as she too shivered from the rush of the cool air. “Ron wasn’t very…er…pleasant to ride with.”
“Bloody hell, if I knew you were going to throw a fit every time there was a gust of wind I would of never volunteered to take you,” someone snapped from behind, causing Harry and Hermione to jump slightly in shock.
“Well if I didn’t feel like you were going to lose control of your broom every time there was a gust of wind, then I wouldn’t have thrown a fit,” Hermione snapped back as the two turned to find Ron holding his Clean Sweep, but was able to keep her voice down.
“I always had good control of my broom!” he growled lowly. "It's just you --"
“Oh, come off it you two,” Harry sighed with a smile. He generally would have been miffed when the two were arguing, but it had been so long that he heard the two of the bicker that he actually found it somewhat amusing and soothing.
“Well she started it,” Ron huffed as he turned and grinned at Harry.
“Potter, Granger, Weasley,” Moody called, causing the three to turn and face the Order members, “we need to get a move on. You'll have time to finish your greetings later. We’re going back to Grimmauld Place.”
With that said, the three Order members mounted their brooms. Tonks gave Harry a bright smile as she placed the Locomotor charm on his trunk. Ron mounted his broom, happy to be flying solo again. Harry was ready to mount his Firebolt when he saw Hermione gave him a somewhat lost and embarrassed look.
“You can ride with me, Hermione,” Harry said with a smile, causing her expression to perk up.
He instructed her to sit in front of him and to keep both her hands firm on the broomstick. She shakily agreed for this was the same thing Ron had told her to do, but he later complained that it made stirring incredibly difficult. The last thing she wanted to be was to hinder Harry’s flying abilities.

The two mounted Harry’s broom and Hermione felt his arms wrap around her to get a firm grip on his broomstick. She released a gentle sigh realizing how much more comforting it felt to ride with Harry than it was with Ron.
Within moments they were off the ground and slowly ascending into the night sky. Several hard gusts of hard wind blew against them, sending chills of panic through Hermione’s spine. She was happy that Harry had kept better control than Ron during such gusts, but still couldn’t help the quivering feeling in her stomach.
“Hermione, don’t lean forward on the broom,” Harry quickly said, feeling the front of the broom getting too heavy.
“Oh sorry!” she gasped as she pushed herself back up. Unfortunately, she did too quickly causing the back of her head to bump into Harry’s forehead. “I’m so sorry Harry!”
“No no, it’s okay,” Harry replied with a groan as he rubbed his forehead with his left hand, doing his best to maintain control on his broom with his right. “Here, just lean back and don’t be so tense, I won’t let you fall.” As he instructed this, Hermione leaned back against him and his left arm protectively wrapped around her waist.
She felt a sudden surge of electricity run through her body. Never before had Harry ever held her like that, even though he was only doing to keep her from falling. She shuddered slightly against him, gently settling her head against his shoulder.
Harry noticed Ron approaching them from his left and he seemed to have a distasteful and humorous expression written across his face. Ron took his position about a yard and a half away from Harry, and quickly turned his expression into a smile, which Harry could tell looked fake.
“My Hermione,” he said, doing his best to maintain his fake smile, “aren’t you getting a bit cozy?”
Hermione lifted her head from Harry's shoulder and whipped it around giving Ron a severe glare. Harry couldn't help but notice how her face had suddenly turned a bright shade of red, how her eyebrows narrowed down, and how her lips turned down in a scowl. He knew that nothing good could come of it.
"You---you should be concentrating on your own flying, Ron!" snapped Hermione her face still very red.
Harry glanced over at Ron and saw the distasteful expression on his face grow more ugly.
"I'm concentrating just fine!" refuted Ron as he flew up closer to Harry's Firebolt. "It's you who's not concentrating! It's you who's getting cozy!"
Harry rolled his eyes. With Ron egging Hermione on like that, their argument could go on for the rest of the flight home.
"You---you don't know what you're talking about!" Hermione exclaimed in slight stammer. "I was just leaning back like Harry told me!"
Hermione, caught up in the argument, suddenly leaned forward and took her hands from the broom just as a strong gust of wind pushed itself in Harry's direction.
"Why don't you mind your own----AHHH!!!!"
Harry saw Hermione's face change from one of anger to one of fear and surprise as she lost her balance. And Harry felt his stomach lurch as his Firebolt swooped down several feet while the strong gusts of wind pushed into both of their eyes. He gripped the broom with his right hand trying desperately to regain control.
"HARRY!!!" she cried out in panic. "WHAT DO I DO?!"
Harry couldn't answer, concentrating hard on fixing his own grip and control of the broom while still holding Hermione tightly around the waist so she wouldn't fall. He could feel her entire body tensing up more the longer it took him to find control again and it wasn't helping.
"HERMIONE, YOU HAVE TO RELAX!" Harry ordered.
"Oh, easy for you to say!!!" Hermione snapped at him.
Harry couldn't help but feel a small chuckle work it's way up his throat.
"Hermione, relax," said Harry in a calming voice, "I told you, I've got you."
Harry heard Hermione let out a deep breath and felt her body beginning to relax in his arms. He smiled with relief and steadied himself and Hermione in front of him until he gained full control of his broom. Hermione made the conscious effort to lean back again as Harry had previously instructed her and he looked at her with a grin.
"See, I told you I wouldn't let you fall, " Harry reminded her.
"Yeah," agreed Hermione, while he noticed that her cheeks were still somewhat flushed, "thanks."
Again, Ron maneuvered his Clean Sweep next to Harry's and gave Hermione a gloatful sort of smile.
"Nice work, there Hermione," said Ron with a snigger.
Harry knew without looking at Hermione that she was again ready to snap back and he tightened his grip around her waist to get her attention and shook his head at her.
"You know, why don't you two save it for when we land?" suggested Harry with an amused grin.
Hermione looked back at Harry and nodded, while Ron grudgingly agreed under his breath. Then they flew off further into the night.
The rest of the flight was quiet and endearing, for Harry's part at least. The cold night wind flew against them but the warmth of someone close soothed him.
Ron was flying just close by with his begrudging look but Harry knew better and did not pay attention. He knew that once they have landed Hermione and Ron would throw a fit at each other.
"Hey Harry, you're awfully quiet," Hermione muttered. Her head still leaning against him and relaxing in his protective hold around her waist.
"Just making sure I won't get you psyched up with flying again," Harry replied glancing at her.
Hermione was smiling, the night sky was beautiful but the sun would soon rise and a part of the horizon is colored with crimson hues. "Look over there Harry. The sky is so beautiful from up here. No wonder you love flying, you can see a lot of things in a whole different prospective," she said.
"You just have to forget about your fear of flying and you'll enjoy it. I think you'll do just fine and maybe you can ride your own broom next time," Harry replied.
"So you don't like riding with me?" Hermione pretended to sound hurt.
"No, that's not what I meant. I think you'll appreciate flying more if you're on your own and besides I'm not complaining about riding with you. You don't move around so much and you're a very good riding companion minus the panic fits of course," Harry said.
Hermione started giggling and he joined along.
"Oi! You two we're taking a turn," Ron yelled out from the other side near Tonks.
Harry pulled off to the right for a long sweeping turn, he was really enjoying himself. To bad that Ron was boring a hole into the back of his head with his stare.
"Staring at anything interesting Ron?"
Ron's broom jerked down a bit, obviously he thought that Harry wouldn't notice. "No, not really." Ron sped up a bit to get ahead of them and hung around tonks's current position.
Harry chuckled softly under his breath, some times Ron was far too predicable for his own good. Unfortunatly for harry laughing while some one is pressing up against your chest will alert them to it.
"Harry what are you laughing about?" Hermione whispered curiously.
"Nothing, Ron was just staring at the back of my head."
Hermione giggled softly and snuggled farther into harry's arms to get away from the cold.
Harry closed his eyes trying to savor the moment. Subtly he sniffed her hair, his senses referring the wonderful odour. Her bushy curls tickled at his nose, though he didn’t mind it at all. He was entranced by her smell and the way the moon light reflected the curve of her neck...
“Move to the right,” Moody whispered at his left.
Harry was shaken for a second. When did he fly by his side? And why did he have to fly at the right? A huge cloud was approaching and if he went to the indicated direction, he would only fly straight through it.
“Potter what did I say!,” Moody hissed,” the right! Turn right!”
Harry furrowed his eyebrows, but started moving. He looked down at Hermione. Shifting his position in the broom stick, she looked over at him.
Or she looked over his shoulder.
Her frantic eyes scurried across the vast sky. Finally, he noticed, they settled on a direction. He heard her give off a small gasp.
“Harry,” he heard her soft whisper,” go faster they are coming.”
Harry's eyes widened. He wanted to look behind him, but was scared. Any gust that came would sweep Hermione off his broom and to her demise. He was scared. His eyes were wide open, he was leaning forward, Hermione was in a very uncomfortable position.
”We shouldn't have flown,” Harry heard Tonks call, amidst a cry of pain. A broom wizzed across his path, almost removing his hold on the broom. He looked left just in front of the cloud, and saw Lupin's broom fizz out of control. A glinting silver hand sparkling in front of the werewolf.
'Wormtail!' Harry angrily yelled in his mind. And if Wormtail was here, he surely wouldn't be alone. He heard Moody yell "everyone break up! Protect Potter and Granger!" before casting a Stupefy curse at Pettigrew, knocking him off-balance and away from Lupin. The squad made a protective bubble of sorts around Harry and Hermione, who were in the center, and starting firing curses at the Death Eaters.
Harry turned to Hermione, and whispered, "Mione, I want you to keep the broom leveled and moving straight ahead. Our course will lead us to Grimmauld Palace, so just fly straight." She turned frantically, eyes wide. "But Harry...." He shushed her before she could continue. "I believe in you Hermione, I know you wouldn't let me fall for anything, and i'll be here to hold on to you. I won't go anywhere, i promise."
These words calmed her down, and she slowly gripped the broom. Harry placed a protective arm around her waist, and turned to look and watch the battle. The Death Eaters and Order members were shooting various curses and hexes at each other, but weren't able to land succesful hits on each other. Suddenly, Harry saw in the corner of his eyes a flash of violet light and whipped towards it, yelling "Halacio Sepente!" A flash of rainbow colored light surrounded the duo and the curse harmlessly dissipated from it.
Hermione turned to look at Harry. "What was..." "Don't worry, i'll answer later. Keep moving Mione!" whispered Harry, and was forced to keep recasting the advanced shield charm to block the powerful curses the Death Eaters hurled at them. The Order members fired various freezing and entrapment curses, and as a couple of the spells hit the Death Eaters, Wormtail frantically charged into the circle, straight at the two.
Harry saw him coming, and thought only of protecting Hermione. A lightbulb went off in his head, and as Wormtail closed in on them, Harry whispered into Hermione's ear, "Keep going forward." With that, he flung himself off his Firebolt and rammed right into Wormtail, sending them plunging into the depths of muggle London.
Hermione's shriek pierced the stiffness of an alarmingly terrifying atmosphere.
"HARRY! Harry," she screeched desperately, chillingly dreadful thoughts running through her mind, "Harry," she repeated more weakly, tears rolling down her cheeks, burning her face with hatred for the situation she found herself in. Hermione felt the Firebolt wiggle and leaned forward, regaining control; from the left, Ron's Cleansweep approached her swiftly.
"Where's Harry?" Ron questioned precariously, and observing Hemione's downward glance, realized what happened. With a dangerous glance back at her, he plunged into the clouds, Hermione shrieking once more before being swept off balance by a nearing cloud of "Stupefy!"s. She pushed forward on the Firebolt and launched herself away from the numerous black coats, the cursing, and the fatal sounds of one falling; without controlling herself, she flew forward, as far as her eyes could see.

*

MOD NOTE: Hello again folks.
Here is the next installment of the Easy-Read story... sorry it took so long to update.
More to come soon...
~Bec

The people that took part in this part of the story are:

• Zanarkand
• Ponderingprefect
• Perenelle
• Jackryan 411
• Karenkate_kitty
• Scribbler
• Wonderjoe
• Alexandranl

Harry Potter and the Twilight Within, Easy-read 4.

Harry was holding on to the big ugly "rat"'s coat; he was holding for his dear life. Nearing the end of the clouds and beginning of muggle visibility region, Harry's mind raced with thoughts on how to preserve the Wizard World incognito state still; yet he could come up with nothing. Closing his eyes, Harry drew in a deep breath, feeling the chilly cold wind race with his heart, synonymously clothing his skin with lifelessness. Clouds upon clouds were thinning, and anxiety poked its ugly head. One...two...three...clouds are ending...three...four....five, just a meter left; six...seven...eight - here comes the view of the buildings - clouds are low today...nine...
Abyss.
Harry looked around in darkness, surprised, feeling ice against his feet and chilly wind against the rest of him. "Where am I?" he questioned. Harry knew he should be still falling, now in the eyesight range of humans, but instead, he perceived black space, as if trapped in a hole.
"Hello?" he poked the stillness carefully.
"Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?" his own voice replied numerously, echoing more quietly each time.
Harry attempted to stand up, but found that his legs felt like little crackers that got stuck in the rain too long. He searched his pockets for his wand, but found that they were empty. He began to search for his wand, groping the floor around his, which gave a cold chill that ran down his spine. "Come on, where is it.....Lumos.." Harry mumbled to himself, and suddenly, a bright light came from just behind him. He grabbed his wand, and held it high above him.
As he looked around, he observed that he was in a deep tunnel, and as he looked down one of the paths, he saw a faint, teeny light. It was just like the one in his heart, yearning for someone, his mind coming up with thoughts of Hermione, and most immediately after, his promise not to leave her alone. He had to get back to her, and finding a stick to brace himself on, hobbled towards the light, grimacing in pain as he went.

*

Hermione stopped, and turned around to see just how far she had actually went. She saw that she was at least a good distance from the battle, but as she narrowed her eyes to get a good look, she noticed that the number of Death Eaters were gradually getting lower and lower. And finally, the last Death Eater disapparated, leaving behind a group of several very exhausted Order members.
As Hermione counted the number of people there, she saw that Ron had come back above the clouds, a haunted expression on his face. She swiftly moved towards Ron, a look of despair in her eyes that were hidden behind her taut face. "I saw him fall," Ron started. "He was yelling, reaching out to me, and as i grew closer, it was as if he disappeared, into a dark veil, and left Pettigrew to fall." With this, Hermione looked around, and saw the petrified body of the fallen Marauder, and thought otherwise. "We have to find Harry! He's still in recovery from Sirius, and this could just hurt him more!" She yelled, secretly thinking 'He needs me, I can feel it. He's calling for me....'
"Hermione, we have to get back to head quarters the Order will look for Harry," Ron said.

"We can't leave , we have to find Harry. He needs us. We can't just leave him. We don't even know where on earth he is now," Hermione retorted between sobs.

Tonks flew close to them. "Hermione, listen to Ron, we have to go now. Moody and the rest will look for Harry. We need to make sure you're safe. Ron and I will fly close to you." Tonks instructed.

"But I don't want to go. I want to help look for Harry," Hermione blurted. "I want to know if he's okay," she cried.

"Hermione, stop it. Harry would want you to be safe. That's why he went all the way to protect you from Pettigrew. They'll find Harry but we have to go now," Ron said.

Hermione felt herself grow weaker as if almost ready to faint. Tonks Immediately got a hold of her and Ron steadied the firebolt.

"Go now! We'll try and look for Harry. Tonks Alert the others and tell Dumbledore what has happened," Moody ordered before they flew off to Grimmauld.

*

The dark tunnel was very long. Harry couldn't quiet figure out how long he had been walking. It felt like he had been tracing a path with no end. The light from the distance grow faint everytime he stopped.
"Have to keep going," he told himself. "I have to see Hermione-- I have to see Ron.” If anything happens to anyone, it's my fault. My fault, everything's always my fault. Why did this all have to happen to me?'
Harry slumped against the coarse wall he was tracing his paths with. He had made his way through the dark tunnel by quite a way, but the formation of the rocks had not changed in the slightest. They were still as coarse as each other, and damp too. His hands were raw from rubbing them on the wall, and his eyes were blood shot.
A single moment replayed through his mind. The image of Sybill Trelawney's head, glistening in the silver shade in which he had witnessed it, reciting the prophecy. The prophecy that belonged to him. The prophecy that, as it was going, would be his own demise. His annoyance of not being able to know everything it meant was killing him from the inside. It was tormenting him, as his cousin did.
He screwed up his hand and hit the wall, blood started trickling from his knuckle, and he knelt, seeming to accept his fate, nothingness. He had given up on life, given up on everything that made him human. But inside, there were two things, above all others, that were keeping him from giving up hope.
Deep in his heart, the two voices he heard so often were telling him never to give up. His expressionless face turned into a slight smile. How he wished his two best friends were there with him. He started calling out their names, "Ron ... Hermione ... Ron ..."
Harry released a depressed sigh when all he heard were the echoes of his calls. He didn’t expect anyone to answer him. He knew wherever he was; he was alone. He took in a deep breath as he braced himself against the rough wall again, the stinging from his knuckles slowly surfacing. He ignored it and continued on his way to what seemed like an unobtainable destination.
Harry suddenly felt something brush by his leg. It felt almost like an animal. Harry immediately lowered his wand lit wand and scanned the area around his legs. He found nothing. He raised his wand again above his head, wondering if he had just imagined it. However upon taking another step forward, he felt it brush by him again.
“What in the –-” Harry was cut off by what seemed like a low growl. He hesitantly lowered his wand again and looked behind him.
He small squeak left his throat when he found a large white wolf behind him. Its fangs were bare and drool slowly dripped down its jaw. The wolf’s hair was sticking up and its front legs were lowered, almost gesturing that it was about to leap upon Harry.
“Nice…wolf,” Harry muttered as he slowly took a step away from the fierce animal, taking aim with his wand. He knew in order to fire a spell he needed to extinguish the light his wand was emitting. However, by doing so, he would lose sight of his target for a split second, allowing the wolf to attack without mercy.

I have to risk it, his mind said. You can’t wait her all night and stare at it. It’s going to attack you sooner or later…better stop it when you can.

Harry took in another deep breath, his eyes focused on the wolf’s dark ones.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Harry heard a calm voice say from behind him. “She doesn’t like it when wands are pointed at her. Believe me, no matter what you do…whatever spell you choose…it will miss her and she will kill you.”
“What do you suppose I do then?” Harry quickly asked, not bothering to turn to face the stranger behind him.
“Lower your wand,” the voice said matter-of-factly tone. “If you don’t, she will kill you.”
“How can you be so sure that she won’t attack once I lower my wand?”
“She’s my wolf. I know her best.”
Upon hearing this, Harry’s grip on his wand tightened. He cautiously turned and looked over his shoulder to find a very tall man that had a striking resemblance to that of Albus Dumbledore. However, his long beard was dark, his eyes were pale, and his gray robes were as tattered and damaged as Lupin’s.
“Trust me, Mr. Potter,” the man said with a calm and friendly voice. “No harm will come to you. Chandra is pretty harmless when she doesn’t feel threatened.”
“Chandra…” Harry whispered to himself as he returned his stare back to the enraged wolf. Despite what his mind screamed, Harry felt something in his loins that he could trust the man. Without another moment of hesitation, Harry lowered his wand and almost immediately, Chandra’s fervor vanished.
With a snap of the man’s fingers, Harry felt his body become weightless and a bright light consumed him. His body felt like it was freezing and burning at the same time and he felt as if his very life was being sucked out of him. However before he was ready to give in to what seemed like death, he felt his feet make contact with soft wet grass.
Harry opened his eyes and found himself standing on the front lawn of number twelve, Grimmauld Place. Harry turned and his eyes fell upon the man and his wolf.
“Who…who are you?”
“My name is Lasater,” the man replied with a soft smile. “I’m a very very old friend of Albus Dumbledore.”
“Thanks…er…for helping me,” Harry replied sheepishly, uncertain of how he should express his gratitude.
“It was my pleasure, Mr. Potter,” Lasater bowed his head. “Listen, I can’t stay here very much longer. Please deliver a message to Albus for me. Tell him that it has begun and all our backup contingencies have failed. Everything that we have built is slowly starting to crumble. Please tell Albus that…that we must rely on the unimaginable…he will understand what I mean. Can you tell him that for me?”
“Yeah…sure,” Harry nodded and before another word could be said, Lasater and Chandra disappeared with a cloud of smoke.
Harry made his way to the front door. He had the most odd experience walking that unending tunner and meeting an old man and his wolf and now standing in front of #12 Grimmauld without knowing how he got there.
He knocked on the door and he could hear Sirius's mum's portrait shrieking with dismay, yelling curses at whom ever were inside the house.
Tonk answered the door ans was startled to see that it was Harry right in front of her. "Harry!" she said and she instantly pulled him inside. "Where in the bloody blazes were you? The other's are still out there searching," Tonks said in one breathe.
"I'll tell you later but where are Hermione and Ron are they alright?" Harry asked as he anxiously looked up the stairs.
"Ron's looking after Hermione. She fainted when she saw you fall down with that traitor rat," Tonks explained.
"This is all my fault. I hope she's alright," he grunted as he ran up the stairs and made the portraits create a racket again.
"Go on see her. I'll take care of these silly portraits," Tonks retorted. "Shut up or i'll burn all of you--"
Harry ran as fast as he could to get to the room where Hermione was staying in. When he entered the room he saw Ron seated at a chair next to Hermione's bed.
"Harry! You're back," Ron said as he stood up to greet his friend. "What happened? Where did you land, anyway?"
"It's a long story I'll tell you about it when Hermione wakes up. How is she?" Harry asked as he took Ron's former seat and held Hermione's hand tightly.
"I think she was really scared with the whole incident. She fainted while we were still flying. Good thing Tonks and I were close to her," Ron explained.
"Oh, I'm so sorry I got you all worried," he said as he stared at the sleeping Hermione.
"She's not really hurt just exhausted and scared but she'll do fine. Tonks gave her some potion to drink ," Ron said.
"I'm just glad nothing bad really happened to both of you," Harry replied and gave Ron a big heart felt smile.
"And, I'm glad nothing happened to you. We didn't know where you fell and how on earth you got here," Ron asked.
Hermione suddenly stirred. When she opened her eyes and saw Harry by her bedside she suddenly sat up and threw her arms around him.
"You're safe. Thank goodness, you're okay, Harry!" she cried.
"Hermione, it's alright. nothing happened. I'm okay," Harry said as he stroked her bushy brown hair.
"I thought we were going to lose you. I wanted to look for you but they said we should leave for safety--" Hermione tried to explain.
"And they're right Hermione. Good thing you and Ron are okay. You wouldn't know how bad i'll feel if i lose either of you," Harry muttered and smiled at Ron.
Ron smiled back at Harry, buy Harry couldn't help but notice the vein pulsing over his left eye brow. Harry looked back at Hermione and soon realized that they still had their arms around each other, her face buried in the nape of his neck.
"Maybe I should leave you two alone," Ron huffed as he turned away from them, grumbling as he made his way towards the door.
However before Harry had a chance to say a word, the door of their room burst open, causing the trio to literally jump.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Ron said respectfully.
"Hello, Mr. Weasley. Harry, I just received word that you have arrived," Dumbledore said, "although I do not know how you did."
Harry quickly explained the story of Lasater and Chandra. When he reached the part where Lasater transferred him to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, he saw Dumbledore's eyes light up and he was pretty sure the professor had muttered something.
"And then he told me to tell you that 'it has begun and all our backup contingencies have failed. Everything that we have built is slowly starting to crumble,' and that we have to 'rely on the unimaginable.' He also said that would make sense to you," Harry said uncertainly.
Dumbledore nodded, "This makes perfect sense. Thank you, Harry. I must attend to other matters."
The trio watched as Dumbledore swept out of the room and then quickly turned back and stuck his head through the door, "By the way, I'm glad you're safe, Harry."
Harry nodded gratefully. He suddenly noticed that Hermione's arms were still wrapped around him even though her face was no longer buried in his neck.
"Um...Hermione...?"
"Oh, right! I'm sorry," she said.
Harry shrugged, but he noticed that Ron seemed much more pleased by this arrangement.
"So how was your summer, Ron?" Harry asked, turning his head to face his best friend.
"Pretty good," he said, but his face told a different story. Harry knew that Ron was probably still upset that he hadn't done much in the Department of Mysteries and that Sirius had died. Harry himself had relived that day over and over.
"How 'bout yours?" asked a distracted Ron who was avoiding Hermione's gaze.
"Do you really want to know?" Harry huffed with a slight glare before being startled by the loud shrieks of Mrs. Black's portrait.
"You traitors.. Coming here just to besmirch my noble home! Be gon-.."
The trio looked up at each others face before scrambling to their feet running downstairs, stopping just at the edge of the stairs. They looked around at the scene before them. Mundungus Fletcher was lying on the floor probably drunk with fire whiskey again, Tonks was holding her wand in front of the prattling portrait and a limping and exhausted Snape walking towards the headmaster who was gesturing him to come to the kitchen.

Snape?

"It's Snape." said Harry with great dislike, a distinct anger in his voice. he still believe that he's one of the reasons why Sirius is dead now. If only he helped... Sirius might've been..
Ron craned his neck to get a much nicer view of the kitchen. Stepping closer to Harry's side. "Did you see his face? He looked like he got ran over by a thousand hippogriffs!"
Harry let out a laugh and nodded. "I just hope the prat bought good news." he added soberly.
Hermione, who was standing on Harry's right, shook her head slightly. "Now now Harry, you oughtn't.." she stopped suddenly and clutched the stairs' banister tightly -her words trailing off. "Bloody hell!" she cursed softly, her breathing ragged.
Harry looked at her taken aback. She hardly curse. She never does. "hey.. -Hermione, are you alright?" he asked worriedly, noticing her chest heaving really fast and her hand turning purplish at the hand railings of the stairs. "What’s wrong?"
Ron who was now amusing his self at Tonks and Mrs. Blacks’ bantering just laughed really hard, not noticing his best friends.
Hermione waved a hand dismissively before putting it on her chest. "I’m fine." she squeaked, swaying slightly.
Harry instantly supported her, holding her on her waist. "You're a terribly bad liar Hermione. I’m not blind you know."
Her breathing worsened and suddenly came out as gasps. "Potions!" she breathed staggering to her feet and gripping Harry's hand firmly. "I - forgot - to- drink - my potions!" she said in between deep gasps.
Panicking, Harry scooped her hastily, nearly knocking Ron over, who yelled indignantly. But before he could even open his mouth, Harry yelled at him angrily. "Just find the potions on Hermione's room!" Ron just looked at him in surprise then on Hermione who was in his arms, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Ron MOVE! She needs that potion!" Finally, Ron was shaken out of his stupor and ran hurriedly upstairs.
"What’s all this racket about Potter?!" came a cold voice from his side.
Harry looked up to see Snape standing up beside him, with the same tight-lipped frown on his face that was covered by his greasy, black hair. He saw his eyes shift from Harry to Hermione with indifferent surprise on his face. It was enough to make Harry boil in anger.
"What's Miss Granger gone and done to herself now?" Snape snivelled in their direction.
Harry's nostrils flared and he almost had enough nerve to stand up call Snape a few names while punching him in the face. But having Hermione shaking in his arms stopped him from doing so.
"She forgot to take her potions," muttered Harry.
"Oh, I see," Snape sneered with a disgusting smirk on twitching on his lips, "pity, I thought she'd be smart enough to remember something like that, but perhaps your influence on her has dumbed her down a bit."
"You slimy---," growled Harry.
He started to stand up, but felt Hermione's shaking hand grab his and he looked down at her, shocked to see that she was still able to keep him in check even though she was in great pain. She shook her head and held onto his hand while Ron came dashing down the stairs, his arms full with potion bottles.
"Here you go, Harry!" said Ron his voice quivering and his eyes wide as he stared at their still gasping best friend.
Harry took the bottles that Ron handed to him and picked one, unscrewing the top and bringing it close to Hermione's lips urgently. Suddenly, Snape's hand flew down and snatched the potion away from Harry's hand.
"Give it to me, Potter!" he snapped.
"Well, I can't since you already took it from me!" refuted Harry. "Why did you take it from me anyway? She needs her potions!"
Harry and Ron glared back at Snape calling all the names they could think of to insult him. To their surprise and further indignation, Snape merely stared back at them with his icy, black eyes while he screwed the top back on to that potion and carefully opened another one.
"Do you think I'd let you handle such a potent potion considering your dismal performance in my class, Potter?" said Snape, grabbing Hermione from Harry.
"OI, YOU! LEAVE HER ALONE!" Ron shouted.
"Silence, Weasley," commanded Snape. "The order in which the potions are to be taken is of the utmost importance. I highly doubt that Potter knows that order. Of course, he is welcome to try, if wants to cause yet another person's death with his foolhardy mistakes."
Harry glanced at Hermione who's eyes were shining with tears of apology and fear while he clenched his fists. He had no right to say those words and he had no right to speak of something which he knew nothing about. He had no right to speak of Sirius. He felt a fiery heat spreading from the tips of his toes and fingers rushing through every vein in his body and he started to rush towards Snape, his hands outstretched ready to grab and pull out all of his greasy black hair.
"SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP!!! YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT SIRIUS THAT WAY!!!" Harry shouted, as Ron leapt at him, holding him back with every bit of strength he had. "IT'S NOT MY FAULT HE WAS KILLED!!! IT WAS YOURS!!! IF YOU'D HAD LISTENED TO ME SIRIUS WOULD STILL BE ALIVE!!! IT'S YOUR FAULT! YOU! YOU'RE THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR SIRIUS'S DEATH!!! YOU WANTED HIM TO DIE!!! I KNOW YOU DID!!!"
Harry fumed while Snape remained silent and distributed the last of the potions to Hermione who was now falling into a calming sleep. He looked down at his chest and saw that Ron's hands were still around him, holding back and he shook violently, ready to punch Ron if he had to, so he could get to Snape. He tried to fight off Ron's tight hold some more while Snape lifted Hermione from the floor and carried her to her room.
"YOU LET GO OF HER YOU GREASY GIT!!!" Harry shouted, finally breaking free of Ron's hold.
He started to chase Snape up the stairs and Ron stumbled after him to get to him before he got to Snape. Harry made it up the stairs, stopped and saw Snape standing outside the closed door of Hermione's room.
"You know nothing, Potter," stated Snape and looked past Harry seeing Ron run from the staircase and tackle Harry to floor.
He brushed past them and walked away with not a word. Harry shot a angry glare at Ron and pushed him away and then sat up rubbing his arm where he had tackled him.
"What did you do that for?!" Harry demanded.
"What are you talking about?" said Ron. "You were going to attack him, Harry!"
"So what if I was?" Harry responded. "He'd deserved it."
Ron shook his head in exasperation and shrugged, "Look, I hate Snape just as much as the next person, but Harry, you can't attack him."
Harry's eyes widened and his jaw dropped in disbelief. He couldn't believe that these words were coming from his best friend's mouth.
"You saw what he did, he snatched potion from me!" Harry muttered.
"He was helping Hermione!" sounded Ron. "You should at least give him that much credit!"
Harry opened his mouth to answer something in argument but couldn't find the words. Ron's words were true. Snape had helped Hermione, but it didn't stop him from hating everything about him. He ran his hands over his face and then through his messy hair and then looked up at Ron who looked a lot more calm than he did when he and Hermione were sharing their embrace.
"C'mon mate," Ron began and stood up, holding out a hand to Harry, "let's go downstairs, maybe Mum's made some snacks and we can play Wizard's chess."
Harry grabbed a hold of Ron's hand and hoisted himself up and he was surprised to see a small grin appear on his face. Harry couldn't help but smile back as they started toward the stair case. He looked at Ron for a second and shook his head while chuckling to himself
"Thanks, mate," Harry said as they made their way downstairs.

*

Harry and Ron woke to find themselves sprawled out on the living room armchairs. Harry raised his arms over his head and stretched his back, a small yawn escaping him. He groaned from the soreness that came from his nose. He had unfortunately left his glasses on last night, allowing them to leave what felt like a permanent impression on his nose.
The remainder of the night before went by pretty uneventfully. Dumbledore and Moody had left to attend to few matters with the Ministry of Magic. The rest of the Order members were discussing their private matters around the dining room table. However, they would immediately quiet down the moment the boys were of hearing range of their conversation. Understanding the hint they were receiving, the two retreated towards the living room, being careful when they passed Mrs. Black’s now tarp-covered portrait.
Ginny had flooed in as they settled in their armchairs, causing Mrs. Black to go on other one of her raging banters. Upon calming her, Harry, Ron, and Ginny returned to the living room and had a conversation Fred and George’s joke store. Harry couldn’t hide his grin when the two Weasleys went off on the new prototypes the twins had invented. Ron commented on how he couldn’t wait to try a few of them out in Hogwarts, completely ignoring his prefect duty to maintain order.
“Happy Birthday Harry,” Ron said through a yawn, his fingers running through his messy red hair.
“Thanks Ron,” Harry smiled as he stood from his armchair and stretched his legs.
“Oh, it’s good that you’re both awake,” the two heard Mrs. Weasley said from behind them. And almost immediately upon hearing those words, the fresh and welcoming scent of breakfast consumed them. “We’re in the middle of breakfast.”
“Oh mom!” Ron gasped, his eyes widening. “You should of woke us…there won’t be any food left!”
“Tonks and I made plenty,” she replied as she allowed her son to maneuver around her and towards the dining room. “Happy Birthday Harry.”
“Thank you Mrs. Weasley,” Harry grinned as Mrs. Weasley brought him into a warm hug. “How is Hermione?”
“She’s doing just fine. She’s still asleep…Severus says not to wake her and allow her to recover on her own,” she answered. However before Harry could pull out of her embrace, her arms tightened around him. “Listen, dear, there is something you need to take care of before you go to breakfast.”
“What?” Harry asked, his voice muffled by her red hair.
“I need you to go into Sirius’ room,” she replied, finally releasing him from her embrace. “Don’t worry, you will understand. Go now and come back down for breakfast once you’re done.”
Harry gave her a questionable look and she simply gave him her usual smile before making her way back into the kitchen. Harry turned towards the staircase and with a shrug of his shoulders he quietly ascended the staircase, his anticipation growing with each step he took.
He carefully peaked into Hermione’s room and found her resting peacefully in her bed. Harry bit his lower lip. It was his fault that she was like this. If she hadn’t come out to get him, she wouldn’t have forgotten to take her medicine. Harry found it ironic how his recklessness decreased when she was around, yet hers increased when she was around him.
Harry released a gentle sigh and quietly closed her door. He took in a deep breath and continued his way towards Sirius room. The door to the room creaked as it opened and Harry was surprised to see that the room was covered with dust.
“Shut the door, Harry,” Harry heard a familiar voice say to him when Harry entered the room.
Harry immediately recognized the voice and closed the door behind him, a large smile forming on his face. “Sirius! Is that you?” Harry looked around room for his godfather but found no one waiting for him. “Where are you?”
A scroll lying in the center Sirius’ work desk suddenly started to vibrate, a bright light emitting from it. Harry’s mouth slowly dropped when he watched the scroll roll about the desk and perform an incredibly odd dance before it finally opened, the light intensifying so brightly that it caused him to cover his eyes.
“Happy Birthday Harry,” Harry heard Sirius say. Harry dropped his hands and he couldn’t hold in his emotions at the sight of his godfather.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Mods: Next post to be added

Rightio folks. Another part has arrived.

The people who have taken part in this are:

• SoulShine
• Harry/Hermione 4eva
• MyOb
• Wonderjoe
• Alexandranl
• Karenkate_kitty
• Harryloveshermione1999
• Zanarkand
• Jackryan 411

So, here we go again...


Tears came rolling down Harry's cheecks as he stared at the image of his late godfather. “I know it's a day late Harry, but you were missing yesterday. So Happy birthday for yesterday, Harry.”
”S-Sirius? Thank-you...” Harry replied as he lowered his head, “I miss you so much.” he added sadly.
”I miss you too Harry, but if you ever need to talk to me, well, I know this really isn't the real thing, but you can come up here and talk to me any time you want.”
”Thank-you Sirius.”
”Hey! It's ok! Anything for my ickle Godson.” Sirius winked at him mischieviously as Harry looked up and playfully glared at Sirius. “Anyway, I pre-ordered this a couple of days before I died, it only just came in, but anyway, happy birthday Harry.”
Harry turned to face where Sirius was pointing towards and saw lying on the dusty bed, a big brown paper package.
"It's the newest model. Remus told me they confiscated your Firebolt so I thought it best to get you a new one," Sirius said.
Harry approached the dusty bed.
"I know you'll like it. It's better than the Firebolt. It's the new Thunderbolt. Best broom ever made. At least that's what Witch Broomstick's claimed. Open it Harry," Sirius' said enthusiastically.
Harry got hold of the packaged and opened it. It really was a beautiful sight. The handle was polished and furnished to perfection and just like his Firebolt not a twig was off its place. Harry was awfully quiet still marvelling about the beauty of his new broom.
"The best part is Harry, that broom is bewitched to fit whomever it's riding it. It can go lighter or heavier just to give the rider better control over the broom. It comes with an easily instruction manual you can read but I know you don't need one because riding a broom is in your blood," Sirius' explained.
Harry faced his godfather with tears falling down his blurry eyes. "Thanks Sirius. I don't know how to thank you enough for your kindness," Harry said. "I wish I could hold you," Harry added as he tried to reach out to his godfather and the image that was Sirius did the same. Harry's hand just passed through his godfathers.
"You know I will always be here for you Harry," Sirius muttered.
"And you will always be in my heart Sirius," Harry admitted.
"I know and I want you to be strong Harry. Do it for me and do it for the people you love," Sirius said.
A smile broke into Harry's tear stricken face.
"And I want you to win the Quidditch cup this year. Lead Gryffindor to victory just like what your father used to do and Harry. If you need someone to talk to I will always be here. And one more important advice Harry, Think before you act. I know it doesn't sound so good coming from me but it is something that you should always keep in mind."
“I will Sirius,” Harry replied with a defeated voice as he sat down upon Sirius’ dusty bed. “I don’t want to be the cause of anyone else’s death.”
“You did not cause my death!” Sirius exclaimed. “You were never the cause of my death or anyone else’s. I was the cause of my death, not you.
“But if I hadn’t believed -- ”
“Harry, it wasn’t your fault,” Sirius said softly as he took a seat next to Harry. “Everyone chooses their own path in life…they make their own decisions. And they are the cause of their deaths.”
“But –- ” Harry tried to protest but was again cut off.
“Harry…just shut up about it,” Sirius grinned, his eye noticing the ring on Harry was wearing. “I see that it has been given back to you.”
“Yeah,” Harry replied as he looked down on the right. “Kreacher tried stealing it from me…why would he do that? What’s so important about it that Voldemort would want it?”
“Oh that damned elf…” Sirius groaned, shaking his head. “Well the ring is…”
Sirius paused, apparently contemplating on his answer, when a creak was heard outside the door. Harry jerked his head back in alarm, as did his godfather, and the two exchanged disconcerted looks.
Harry slowly rose up from the dusty squeaking bed and walked cautiously towards the door, barely breathing, reached for the handle, and turned it slowly, unsheathing the darkness of the corridor. He looked out, but no one was there. Harry frowned and closed the door once again, turning to his godfather, and frowning even more fiercely. Sirius' hands and feet were slowly becoming...transparent! His eyes glistened as he croaked painfully,
"Harry...we only have ten minutes in a day to talk...I must go back. Keep the ring, Harry, but don't use it...it may bring big things - horrible things, things not meant to be."
"But...how can I use the ring if I don't know what it does...where are you going?" protested Harry.
"The ring..." Sirius moaned once more, his image now faintly lighted, "May bring from outside world," [another moan], "One you wish. It also has the ability," Sirius was slowly dissaparating, a light emitting from the scroll on the bed, "To tell your death." The scroll began to vibrate and perform its dance as Harry was thrown onto the floor by his godfather's ghost's excruciating cry and passage up into the air.
"SIRIUS!" Harry roared, as the moaning reply followed,
"DON'T USE IT! PROMISE ME, HARRY!"
The image jetted into the paper, and emitting light encircled the scroll, slowly fading and finally calming down to a rest.
"Sirius!" Harry cried, but the paper remained still and quiet. As if a cue has been given, a protesting loud voice bellowed, "YOU FILTHY SCAM! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
Harry bit his lip, hoping Hermione would sleep just fine through all the racket. He glanced down at his ring and saw a shimmer...
"There's something about the ring I've yet to discover," Harry sighed as Hermione's, "Is everything ok?" followed, ringing once again in the corridor.
"ALL OF YOU ARE VILE CREATURES..."
Hermione appeared from behind him. "Err.. what are you doing up? You should be resting," Harry said with concern.
"I'm fine Harry and besides who would be able to rest when there's a screaming portrait making a racket around here," Hermione commented.
"You still need to go to bed," Harry insisted as he tried to motion her back to the room she was resting in.
"Not until I have given you my birthday present," Hermione said as she held out a hand made bracelet that was intricately done by hand. "I made it myself," she said with uncertainty.
Harry gave Hermione a warm smile as he took the bracelet and wore it. "You know you I will never take this off," he said as he gave her his most appreciative smile. "Thanks, it's really nice I want you to know that it's the best gift I have ever received," Harry exclaimed. Indeed it was one of the best. Sirius gave him a new broom but Hermione gave him something that she made just for him. Both gifts were precious to him.
"I'm glad you liked it. It was difficult to make. It's not even close to sock knitting and I made it manually, mind you," she said happily.
"Well, you promise you'll have your rest," Harry prodded.
"Nope, I'm a lot better now. We should go and join the others down stairs," Hermione said.
"But, Snape said-"
"When have you ever listened to Snape? Come on." Seeing Harry's concerned look on his face she added "Honestly Harry, I'm fine."
Harry hesitated before answering "OK, but if you feel ill at all, you'd better tell me."
Hermione smiled "I will, I promise."
"Good."
They trailed down the stairs, Harry keeping a close eye on Hermione incase she fell.
They entered the kitchen just as Tonks managed to silence Mrs Black again.
"Honestly if we can't get rid of that Portrait soon, I'm going to have to do something drastic!" Tonks exclaimed.
"Hermione, glad to see you up." Mrs Weasley said sitting her in a chair at the table. "How are you feeling? Do you want anything? Do you need to-"
"Mrs Weasley, I'm fine really." She answered catching Harrys eye and smiling.
"Are you sure? I can get you some breakfast."
"No, it's OK thank you."
"OK if you're sure." Mrs Weasley gave in and turned to Harry and Ron "I need you two to come with me for a bit today. I need to run a few errands."
"Awwww, Mum!" Ron moaned
"I need you two to run to Diagon Alley and pick up a few things. You'll need it for when Dumbledore arrives," Mrs. Weasley explained. Harry's shoulders suddenly felt a bit lighter than they had been. "Dumbledore's coming?" he repeated. "When is he arriving?" Mrs. Weasley turned to him with an understanding expression. "He'll be arriving in an hour, so you two best run off quickly!" "Yes Mrs. Weasley/Mum!" the boys said, and quickly rushed over to the fireplace. "Hold it you two!" She called to them. Harry and Ron looked at each other, blushing slightly, went and took the list from Mrs. Weasley, and flooed to Diagon Alley. Mrs. Weasley turned to Hermione, who had been watching all of this with a dejected expression on her face about not being allowed to go. "Cheer up, how about you help me in the kitchen to fix them up a grand on dinner?" Hermione's face lightened considerably, and nodded yes as she and the older woman moved towards the kitchen.

*

"Hey Ron, what else do we need?" Harry asked. They had been running around Diagon Alley for the better part of an hour, getting items and tools and equipment of all sorts. Ron had paled slightly at the item they were asked to get in the Apothecary (an 8-legged bat of sorts, neither one of them knew, but Ron had called it a flying spider) and Harry had to fetch the "thing" on his own. Both he and his friend, however, were surprised to learn they had to get a load of books, particularily in the Transfiguration and Defense against the Dark Arts category. Harry personally thought that Hermione would have tons of fun reading all of these books and memorizing them cover to back, but felt that these had something to do with Dumbledore's arrival at Grimmauld.
"All we need to do is pick up a wand from Ollivander's, but it only says that he'll be waiting for us. I wonder why?" his friend pondered. "I guess we'll see when we arrive," He said. As they reached the entrance to the shop, Harry suddenly felt a pang in his scar. Looking around furiously, he told Ron to go and get the wand while he went to sit down for a spell. Ron nodded and went inside, and Harry walked toward a bench in the middle of the square that Ollivander's was located on, all the while on high alert. But as soon as he sat down, a cold, dark voice called to him. "Hello there, Potter..."
Harry jumped up looking around furiously, not finding the source of the voice. But he knew, he recognized it. It was the same voice that would haunt him until the day that he would have to kill him, Voldemort.
Harry muttered under his breath, "where are you, I know your here."
"Potter, i see you've grown stronger. Your magical abilities keep increaseing just as my own did. I have reconsidered killing you, even if you have affections for that mudblood i'll over look that and even allow it, if you join me. With your powers increasing as they are we could rule absolutely. I can teach you things that fool Dumbledore never could, and was afraid of learning. I can give you things you never imagined. If you desire it you may have Bellatrix lestrange, her life hangs on your whim. Those muggles that supposedly look after you, you can teach them to fear and respect you, they will never say that your worthless again. keep your mind open i will be contacting you again soon."
Harry's scar was burning, white hot, he could feel Voldemort leaving his mind as the pain slowly decreased as their mental connection was severed. Harry fell down to his hands and knees breathing heavily.
"Harry are you okay?" He felt hands around his wrists pulling him up, he opened his eyes and Ron was looking at him, worried. Harry shook his head and said,
"I'm fine, did you get the wand?" Ron nodded and he looked at his watch, "We got to get going or we're going to be late!" Ron started to run toward the Leaky Cauldron,
"Ron wait up!" Harry ran after him and Ron stopped and Harry asked, "Late for what?" Ron smiled and said, "You'll see." Harry looked at him confused and Ron laughed softly.
Ron put the Floo powder in the fireplace and he looked and made sure nobody was listening, "Grimuald Place!" He vanished, Harry shook his head as he arrived at Grimuald surrounded by darkness.
"Hello?" said Harry as he tried to walk around the kitchen as he heard whispers, "Somebody turn on the lights." Then Harry was almost knocked by surprise as the lights turned on and he saw a banner and it said, Happy Birthday Harry!
Harry couldn't believe his eyes. Just a while back he felt sick because of the mind attack that Voldemort just pulled on him and now many happy faces are smiling at him and singing him a happy birthday.
"Go on," Ron motioned him to come forward.
Fred and George were carrying a rather big cake. Members of the Order including Professor Dumbledore and Professor Mcgonagall were present. Hermione and Ginny were beside Mrs. Weaslye singing the Happy Birthday with all their heart.
For once Harry felt very happy on his birthday. almost as Happy as the day he found out that he was a wizard and that he will be leaving the Dursleys to go to Hogwarts.
"Blow out the candles dear," Mrs. Weasley promted him.
"Go on Harry. This cake is bloody heavy," Fred commented.
Harry managed a smile and blew out the candles.
Everyone in the room applauded. Harry just stared at all the people around him his eyes almost glistening with tears.
"So what did you wish for?" whispered Hermione in Harry's ear. He looked at her and said,
"You'll just have to figure it out, Miss Granger." She did a puppy face and Harry laughed. Somebody cleared their throat and Harry and Hermione looked away from each other because Ron said almost nicely, "Are you going to cut the cake or what?" Harry noticed his ears were red with anger,
"Yeah." Hermione nodded and went over by Ron. Harry picked up a knife and Fred said,
"You better give me and George a big piece!" Mrs. Weasley hit them and she helped Harry pass out all the pieces.
Harry went over to sit by Ron and Hermione, but a look by Ron told him to stay away, he felt a little jealous at that point, but ignored it and sat by Fred and George, "So big sixteen, huh?" said George playfully hitting Harry on the arm, "You know what that means, don't you?" said Fred. Harry looked at Fred and "No." "You got to kiss a girl.” Fred looked toward Hermione and he said,
“Hermione.” Harry felt himself blush and said quietly, “Is this real tradition?” “Of course it is! I had to do it, George had to do it, everyone of us men in the Weasley Family had to kiss a girl on our sixteenth birthday!” said Fred insulted. George smiled at Fred and said,
“And we choose the girl since were the oldest next to you, and we choose Hermione, we know how much you like her, just give her a kiss on the cheek, or if you want, a kiss on the lips, it’s your choice.” Harry gulped and said,
“I don’t like Hermione that way.” Fred and George smiled at each other and said, “Of course you do, go on!” They pushed Harry off the couch and he walked over to Hermione.
"Hi guys." He said almost too cheerily.
"Hey." Ron said shortly
"Hi Harry, sit down." Hermione said motioning to the seat next to her.
"Thanks." He said blushing slightly.
They sat for a while before Hermione said "So, were you supprised?" breaking the deathly silence that had rested upon the trio.
"Yeah, I never expected this. It's the first Birthday Party I've ever had." He said
"Really?" Ron asked as though he felt sorry for him.
"Yeah, but that just makes this one even more special."
"Ron." Harry said after a while. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Umm...sure." Ron answered looking bewildered but standing with Harry anyway.
"We'll be back in a second Mione." Harry said
Harry led Ron over to a far corner of the room where he turned and looked at him deadly seriously.
"What?" Ron asked
"Is there a...um...tradition that Weasleys have when they're 16?" He asked quietly.
"Oh, yeah, you have to kiss a girl. Fred and George get to choose the one you kiss." He laughed "Who have they said?"
"Hermione." Harry whispered
"What?"
"Hermione." He repeated louder
"Oh. Good luck. She won't want anyone kissing her. She likes someone."
"What?" Harry said in complete shock "Who?"
Ron shrugged "She won't say, But I got an idea who it is." added Ron smiling.
"You do, who do you think?" asked Harry looking confused. "Can't tell you that mate, you'll just have to wait and see." Ron walked away, leaving Harry to think about what to do about Hermione. Should I kiss her? Maybe she doesn't like me? What if she does? I just have to walk right up to her and kiss her, that's it. Then Harry heard a voice,
"You better get back over to your party, or you're going to miss everything." He saw Hermione looking at him, arms crossed, and tapping her foot. Harry laughed nervously as he said,
"Okay." She smiled and grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him to the huge table full of presents.
*

Harry opened every present except one, he saw it was poorly wrapped as he grabbed it and Lupin said,
"That's from me." Harry smiled at him and ripped the paper off and saw a photo album with a picture of him and Sirius on the front, he felt tears coming again as he turned the page and saw their first and last Christmas together. "Thank You, Professor Lupin." said Harry as he looked at Lupin and he said to Harry, "Call me Remus, I'm your godfather now and I'll try to be as good as Sirius was..."
Harry said quietly, "You'll never be Sirius. You'll never be." He felt the tears run down his cheek as he shouted,
"SIRIUS IS MY GODFATHER, NOT YOU! AND NEVER SAY THAT YOU'LL BE AS GOOD AS SIRIUS WAS! YOU NEVER BE LIKE HIM! NO ONE CAN TAKE THE PLACE OF HIM IN MY HEART! NOTHING!" Harry ran upstairs and slammed his door of his bedroom and cried.
Everyone heard Harry crying upstairs and Hermione went to Lupin and said, "Remus you tried, I'll go talk to him." Hermione ran upstairs while Remus looked shocked and Mrs. Weasley said, "Don't worry about Remus, he's just really emotional after what happened to Sirius." "I understand Molly, but I just wanted to be a good godfather to him. " "It'll just take some time for him to over it."
"He'll never get over Sirius, never." added Remus as he walked to the kitchen t bad!"
*
Hermione went into Harry's room where Harry seemed to have wiped the tears out of his eyes and was proceeding to glare at the mirror in his room.
She walked up silently behind me and tapped him on the shoulder, "Harry?"
Harry turned around with such hurt-filled eyes and anguish that Hermione's heart broke in two.
"Oh Harry," she said and wrapped her arms around the newly turned sixteen year old boy.
Harry cried quietly for the next few minutes and Hermione stroked his hair as a mother would, whispering that it would be all right. After a while, Harry stopped and smiled painfully at Hermione.
"I guess I overreacted a bit in there. It's just that I don't want anyone to say that they're going to try and replace Sirius or anything. And we were all sitting around being happy, while Sirius is dead. It just doesn't seem right----"
Hermione put a finger to his lips to silence him.
"Harry, sooner or later you need to realize that you have to be happy, for Sirius' sake. He gave up his life for you and the chance for you to have a happy life. You need to be happy, for him. For everyone. For me."
Harry closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. Hermione was right. He sighed.
"Thanks, Hermione. You're one in a million."
She smiled and looking at her lips, Harry remembered the Weasley tradition.
"Er...Hermione...er, well see there's this Weasley tradition that a man has to kiss a girl when he turns sixteen and Fred and George picked you for me to kiss. So can...can I kiss you?"
"Where?"
Harry shrugged, "I don't know. Where do you want it?"
"Just a quick one on the lips, maybe."
Harry nodded and leaned forward, taking in her jasmine scent. Their lips met for what seemed to Harry a long, suspended moment in time. It seemed to go on forever, though it lasted only three seconds.
They both pulled back and gave each other a grin.
"Why don't we go back downstairs?" Hermione said.
Harry nodded, and started heading for the door, Hermione in tow. When they reached the party again, they entered without drawing too much attention. immediately Harry was grabbed by Fred and George, who asked,
"Did you-"
"Kiss her?"
"Yes", said Harry, smiling at the memory. The twins' faces split into identical grins.
"Then the Weasley tradition has been honored once more." Happy that it was so, Fred and George left Harry to go grab some other Butterbeers.
Harry remembered the cause of his going upstairs to cry and started looking for Remus to apologize for his emotional outburst. After not finding his former professor at the party, Harry left for the kitchen. He found Remus leaning on the counter drinking what looked very much like FireWhiskey.
Harry decided to go to the point immediately.
"Remus, I'm sorry for how I got mad at you back there. I think you can do a very good job of being my godfather, but please don't try to beat Sirius at it."
Remus Lupin glanced at Harry in the meekest of glances, understanding in his eyes. He could see why Harry had suddenly burst out like he did, after all Sirius was like no other, he knew. "It's alright Harry, i understand. I don't intend to replace Sirius, nor is it my desire to. I simply wish to take care for you the way you should have been brought up to be." Harry's face clearly showed a relaxed look, and he sat more comfortably in his chair. "Now Harry, there's something I was to tell you, but you know events were in the way." Remus took out a long envelope, clad in the Hogwarts seal, and bore Harry's name. He handed it to him, and he tucked it into his robes. "Thanks Remus," he said. "Harry, I've been reinstituted as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I've also been asked by Dumbledore to get you up to scratch on your dueling skills, in case it is, and will, ever be needed."
Harry looked at him with an interested look. "Come, let's head back to the party. It's getting late, and what would a party be without its party champion?" Harry grinned, eyes sparkling, and together they entered into the party room, both with lighter hearts.
As soon as they entered the room, Remus went off to speak with Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt in a corner. Harry found Ron and Hermione standing near the table with drinks and chatting.
"Oh hi Harry! How did it go?" asked hermione.
"Fine. Remus isn't mad at me. Guess who the new Defense Professor is?" Harry watched as both Ron's and Hermione's expressions lit up.
"Lupin?" asked an incredulous Ron. Harry decided he'd play a bit with them.
"No mate. I'm sorry but it's Snape." Said Harry with a mock somber look. He looked at Ron and saw he had played enough...
"I WAS JUST JOKING!! Remus, or rather Professor Lupin, has been reinsuted!!"
"Oh thank Merlin! You almost had me there Harry. Please never do a joke that bad again k?" Harry nodded and slapped Ron's back.
Hermione had watched the whole exchange with an amused expression. She could see just through Harry because she knew him so well and she had immediately recognized that grin as one of joy. She decided to chime in.
"Harry, before you came over, Ron was telling me about his correspondence with Luna Lovegood." Ron had immediately changed expression and started blushing. Hermione continued, "Come on Ron, tell Harry about the owls you have been receiving all summer..."
Ron started stuttering and babbling, "Y-yes I-I have been c-corresponding with her, that's all..."
Harry had a sudden thought, "Ron do you like Luna?"
Ron's face paled just slightly, looked around frantically for a sign of any human being remotely within hearing range, and mumbled something. "Sorry, Ron, what was that?" Harry called, an amused feeling creeping onto his face. "Ok, ok, so I may like her a teeny bit, doesn't mean anything will happen right? I mean, I'm really only talking to her because of what happened at the end of last year, and I just want to make sure she was alright," Ron replied defensively. Harry smiled, a likely excuse, he should have just answered yes. "That's cool Ron, let's get back to the party."

*

The week after Harry's birthday, the trio were sitting in front of the fireplace chatting when suddenly 3 owls flew in from a window and deposited letters bearing the Hogwarts seal on the teenager's laps. "Oh my, our OWLS!" Hermione gasped. harry looked nervously at his, knowing that his future decided upon what this letter contained. He ripped open the envelope slowly, took a deep breath, and read the letter. Hermione and Ron watched as Harry's nervous face was replaced with looks of sadness, surprise, then came to a stop at a grateful look. "I did it, I have enough OWLs to get into the Auror classes," He said, holding up the envelope that showed an O on potions, his worst subject. It also showed an O in DADA, an E in Trangfiguration and Charms, and an A in Astronomy and Divination. "YOU DID?! OHMEGOSH HARRY, CONGRATULATIONS!!" Hermione practically yelled and gave him a big hug. Now Ron opened his envelope, feeling somewhat more confident in the fact that if his best friend, faker of all things Divine and an average potions maker, can somehow score enough to make it into his selected job course, and peeked at his letter. "Well what do you know, I didn't do too bad," Ron said after looking, showing his letter, which showed a spiffy 7 OWLs, including an O in DADA, an E in Charms, an A in Transfiguration and Charms, and P's in Astronomy and Divination. "That's great Ron!" Hermione said, gave him a hug, and then turned to look at hers. "I don't know if I can do it guys. What if I got...an E on something?!" she gasped, a horrified look on her face. "I'll do it for you Hermione," Harry said, ripping open the envelope, and looking. "Excellent Hermione, an O in everything!" He didn't get to say any more as she jumped onto him on an attempt to see her perfect OWLS scores.
During the month after Harry's party, he, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny lounged around in Grimmauld Palace. Really the only eventful surprise at their stay was a second arrival by Dumbledore, informing the young wizard of his training that would begin during the beginning of the school year. Harry, after much prodding from Hermione, perused Sirius's bountiful library and researched many different types of hexes, jinxes, and curses that would prove useful. As time passed, the day of September 1st arrived, and the young quartet and their watchers arrived at Platform 9 3/4. The group arrived at the Hogwarts Express, deposited their trunks, and were about to board the plain when a familiar voiced called "Harry! Harry!"#
Colin Creevey came running over with his camera, "Harry, can i take a couple pictures of you guys boarding the train? it will be a really nice action shot, to start my portfolio about your year at school."

Harry looked up into the sky seemingly asking the powers that be, 'why.' But was interupted when Hermione held is hand softly and replied, "yes of course you can take a picture of us Colin, Harry would be happy to help you."

Ron's face contorted into several odd shapes as he tried to fight the fit of laughter that wanted to rise out from inside of him, he didn't win. Ron snorted just loud enough to be noticeable to Harry and Hermione while Colin didn't seem to hear it or the fits of laughter that made its way through.
Harry tried to save face but was really at a loss to do so, "Of course you can just dont tell any one about it until the portfolio is done. and please have some discretion colin, some things are meant to be private."
Colin looked like he just won a huge game of luck, "oh of course Harry. Now just walk into the train like you normally would and I'll get shots from different angles." it didn't seem that Colin had any discretion in mind.
The trio did so stopping often for Colin to pose them move and take a few more shots. Finally getting into their compartment and sitting down Harry took a near the window as Hermione sat next to him putting a hand on his knee while Ron sat across from them.
Colin raised an eyebrow at Ron but the redhead only shrugged with a small grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. Colin took two pictures on of the three of them and one of harry and Hermione.
A few minutes into the journey a small knock on the door announced Neville and Ginnys arrival.
"Hi, guys." Ron said moving over to make room on his side of the compartment.
"Hi." They answered sitting opposite him.
"Am I really that bad?" He asked
"No, it's just-"
"Ronald! You saved me a seat!"
"Oh no."
Ron blushed at the sight of a smiling, flushing with a triumphant grin Luna. The next series of events happened in such a quick succession that none of the students could comprehend exactly what had happened (until the cause of the commotion was revealed): a sharp shriek escaped Luna's lips as she was thrown with at a furious speed inside the compartment and ultimately onto Ron, the latter flushing even more madly; the neglected for a long time Crookshanks leapt into the air and landed on Harry's head, causing great fuss from Hermione; Ginny was shunned by Neville's heavy elbow in response to the ginger cat's jump, and as a result fell over on the floor, speechless yet radiating fumes of anger.
"You...YOU!" shrieked Luna (still on top of Ron, but this time turning her head towards the entrance), pointing at the always sleek-haired Draco, who was standing in the doorway, chuckling coolly at the present confusion, Crabbe and Goyle - his big personal "bodyguards" behind him.
"Why don't you have Creevey photograph this, Potter?" he sneered, "Or would you rather take the model shots or walking up to the train?" He put his elbow on his neck and puckered his lips; followed swiftly by turning his body away and whipping his head in front, batting his eyelashes. "Oh beautiful, Harry, you're simply gorgeous," Draco imitated Colin's voice, "Now hands on your hips, and do the walk!" he continued with an imitation of the runway walk on the spot.
Hermione stared at him in disgust, composedly remarking on the latter's stupidity and ignorance.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, MUDBLOOD?"
Just as Draco's rage-filled voice filled the compartment, all changed - and changed extremely fast. The light turned to a dark atmosphere and silence resounded around the students, broken by a quiet whine from the direction of the doorway.
"Oh, for Merlin's sakes!" Hermione's voice protested, "Lumos!"
At the realization that her spell hadn't worked, Hermione once again muttered, "LUMOS!" this time with a detectable frustration, to no effect.
"What's going on?" Luna's trembling voice questioned, followed by a groan from Ron, which indicated she was still squeezing him madly.
"You can get off me now," Ron said.
Luna stood up with Ron holding her arm for support.
"I wonder what's goin' on. It's only three in the afternoon but even the sky is dark outside and the lights won't turn on," Neville commented.
Hermione helped Ginny on to her feet.
The train suddenly went to a halt. Hermione almost crashed the same way as Ginny but Harry was holding her still and let go of her when he thought he was already on her feet.
"The train stopped," Draco said exasperatedly.
"How can you be so obvious?" Ron retorted.
"Let's just stay here?" Harry said.
"I think Ron and I and this other prefect here should go in front to check on what's happening," Hermione said as she stood up.
Harry suddenly held her back. "What if someone's out there you and Ron could get in hurt," Harry said.
"Oh how touching. Too bad I can't see you it," Draco sniggered and Crabbe Goyle chuckled along.
"We'll be fine Harry. It's our job we have to keep the other students reassured. Rn, we should go. This is bad. I can't use magic inside the train," Hermione commented.
"Well, I guess A mudblood like you can't do simple spells," Draco snarled.
"If you're so clever then you try," Harry spat.
"Lumos!" Draco said but to no avail.
"Guess you're not so good yourself," Ginny sniggered.
"We still need to go and check up front," Hermione said with conviction.
"Oh, alright but I still don't think this is a good idea," Ron said as he stood up reluctantly. paving his way in the dark being careful not to step or to bump into anyone.
"I'll go with you then," Harry insisted. "I really have a bad feeling about this."
The trio exited the compartment, Ron making sure he kicked Crabbe in the shins on the way. Hermione leading, they headed towards the front of the train, towards the Head carriage. As they entered the carriage, feeling of cold and sadness filled Harry. He knew the feeling perfectly well... Dementors! But what were they doing here? Harry whipped out his wand and looked around. Inside the carriage there were no dementors, no form of life whatsoever. Harry watched the fogged window of the compartment and went to it. He cleaned some fog away with his hand and watched as hundreds of dementors walked, or better glided towards the train.
"Oh no..."
Harry muttered under his breath. This was what they'd been waiting for. They were probably hungry, and old Tom let them go feed themselves a bit. They weren't going to hurt anyone, not if Harry had a say in it.
"What?"
He heard Ron asking from behind him.
"Dementors, Ron. Can't you feel them?"
Hermione asked him in a disbelieving voice. The dementors weren't yet near enough to start sucking happiness out, but since there was a high number, the gave off only a feeling of cold and dread.
"Lumos" Harry said, hoping it would work now. It did, and a cone of light erupted from the end of his wand.Strange, Harry thought.
Hermione and Ron tried too, but both of them had no result. Hermione gave a frustrated sigh. This was not normal for her: not being able to perform a spell when in need.
The dementors were starting to get nearer, and Harry started racking his brain for a happy thought... but the problem was, since Sirius' death, he had had little pleasant thoughts. Then, as he could start to hear yells from the other carriages, it came to him: his kiss with Hermione had been good enough!
He decided to act quickly. He spun around and blasted the window with a powerful Reductor Curse. The glass cracked and Harry pointed his wand toward the cloaked advancing forms. Strangely, as if a spell had been broken, now even Ron and Hermione could perform magic.
"Of course," Hermione said,"that curse I read about...It can stop magic in a certain place...What was it's name..." she continued thinking.
"Hermione this isn't the time! Think a happy thought and prepare a Patronus!" Harry yelled at her. He, meanwhile, raised his wand, thought about that kiss, and bellowed "Expecto Patronum!"
Hermione, at his side, did the same thing, and Harry saw an otter and a stag erupt from both their wands and charge the Dementors. Harry swore he saw a silver swan charge the dementors to the left, and many more of the animals he had seen during DA meetings were attacking the dementors. A group of frightened little boys no older than eleven or twelve came in behind them. They are probably muggleborn, Harry thought.
"Ron, give them chocolate!" Harry told him.
He looked at Ron as he searched his pockets for some chocolate frogs. Then he saw Hermione, and he felt bad for her. She had her eyes shut and her brow furrowed in deep concentration. She had only practiced her Patronus at DA meetings, never with a real dementor, never mind hundreds of them. Harry decided he'd put a stop to this, he didn't know how but he'd do it.
"Prongs!" Harry shouted.
The stag turned it's head at him, and Harry nodded at it, thinking 'Hold them a bit, dad." He turned and left the carriage, going to the front. At the very front of the train,there was the fire where the coal should be burning, which was fed by magic, and Harry knew it was connected to the Floo Network. He found the powder in a small bucket in the corner. He took a pinch and threw it in the fire, which turned green. He stuck his head in and said clearly and loud
"Dumbledore's Office"
His head spinned and stopped at the right grate. He saw Dumbledore sitting at his desk, working, strangely unaware of what was happening at the Express.
"Professor, get here, it's important!! Dementors, hundreds of them!!"
Dumbledore didn't even answer. He ran to Fawkes and they were gone immediately with a burst of flames.
Harry didn't loose time. He took his head out of the fire and ran back to the Head carriage. He saw Hermione was going to loose it in no time. He continued running to the next carriage, where he checked that everything was fine...But it wasn't. Small kids were on the floor crying, and even older students that should at least try a Patronus were in bad shape. He continued and checked in on Luna, Ginny, Neville, Malfoy and his cronies. Ginny, Neville and Luna were concentrated with their Patronuses, while Malfoy was whimpering. Crabbe and Goyle were knocked out. He decide they were ok, so he went back to Ron and Hermione. He looked out the broken window and saw the Dementors weren't relenting. But then, in the darkness there was a flash of fire and Dumbledore was between them and the Dementors, with Fawkes beside him. He looked at them and nodded at Harry. He pointed his wand at the train and said something inaudible to them. The train started moving again and at once they were hooting away, leaving Albus Dumbledore alone facing hundreds of dementors.
Hermione's leg gave away under her, and Harry caught her and laid her on a row of seats to rest.
"Ron, I will stay here and help the kids. You go check on the others on the carriages behind this one."
Ron only nodded and staggered away, behind the door and towards the other carriages. He raised his wand and said "Accio chocolate" and many many chocolate frogs came out of the little storage cupboard of the old plump witch. Harry finally let exhaustion get to him. He slumped down on the floor and rested his back against the lower parts of the seats, near Hermione and fell asleep lulled by the movement of the train.
He felt a warm hand on his shoulder shaking him slightly.
"Harry." He heard his name being whispered in a soft voice. His eyes fluttered open to see Hermione, Ron and Dumbledore crowded around him.
"How long have I been asleep?" He asked grogily sitting up straighter
"Not long, half an hour, maybe less." Ron answered
"Is everything OK? What about the first years?"
"Everything is fine Harry. All students have been taken cared for, and the first years who do not wish to be left alone have a DA member with them." Dumbledore spoke.
Harry nodded and looked at Hermione sitting beside him, looking pale to say the least.
"Are you OK?" He asked softly
"Yeah. I just couldn't do it Harry, keep them away I mean. I had a happy though in my head, and I produced my patronous perfectly but it wasn't enough. I'm sorry." She said looking down into her lap.
Harry looked at her pale face and then away. He looked at Dumbledore instead. The Headmaster looked very worn out. The twinkle and the usual smile were gone from his face, and he wore a frown.
"Harry, I advise you eat a bit of chocolate, we will be arriving at Hogsmeade station in a matter of minutes. Mr. Weasley, if you find you have enough strenght to do such thing, I would ask of you to help me with the arrival at Hogsmeade."
Ron nodded. He was still in a good shape compared to his best friends:he had not performed a Patronus.
Dumbledore walked out of the compartment, robes billowing behind him, and with the redhead in tow.
Harry immediately sat up, which he found out was very painful. He was sore everywhere. he still managed to sit near Hermione, who looked on the verge of tears. He looked as they started to spill out of her beautiful brown eyes. Wait a second, Harry told himself, where did THAT come from?
Anyway, he hugged Hermione tightly and whispered soothing words while stroking her back. She cried a bit on his shoulder until they heard the train come to a stop in Hogsmeade station. They both stood up and walked out onto the platform, and walked towards the carriages, Hermione completely ignoring her Prefect duties. Harry looked at the Thestrals and thought about the reason he could see them. He shuddered involuntarily and stepped onto the carriage.
Hermione was probably in the same state as he was. She was exhausted and looked rather pale. Soon enough Ginny and Neville went inside the carriege.
"Where is Ron and Luna?" Harry asked.
"Oh you mean the dynamic pair. They're helping out the kids to the other carriages. They'll be here soon," Ginny said. There was also a look of exhaustion in her face but she managed to give them a weak smile.
Hermione tried to stand up from her seat realizing that she hadn't been doing her prefect duties.
Harry got a hold od her and pulled her back to her seat.
"I have to go out and help them. What kind of prefect am I? slacking away from my work," Hermione reasoned.
"No you didn't. You did more than any prefect can do for her school mates. You saved them from dementors," Harry argued. He wanted to talk reason to Hermione and to stop her from overdoing herself.
"I couldn't even fend those dementors away. I felt so useless. Maybe Draco was right? Maybe I'm just a worthless little mudblood," Hermione said and started to sob.
"No! Don't say that. You here me. You're a very good witch your even the cleverest witch I have known in my life. Don't give any weight to whatever that git Draco say about you. You've been hurt and that's why it's a bit harder for you to do magic but you did well on your patronus," Harry exclaimed. "You know if there is anyone who should be blaming himself that would have to be me because i let all this things happen to you."
Hermione looked up at the young wizard, relief and gratefulness in her eyes. The two stared at each other for what seemed like forever, when Hermione made a move towards him, closing her eyes, leaning towards his face....

They were both knocked out of their reverie by a loud explosion, nearly frightening the Thestral into knocking over the carriage. Harry opened the carriage door and looked out......and just barely got his head back inside as a familiar green light flew by. "Harry what's going on?!" asked Hermione, frantically looking around. "It's a Death Eater attack, they picked a perfect time to attack as well, damn them...." replied Harry, formulating a plan in his head. "ok Hermione, here's the plan. Find the members of the DA and get them over here as soon as possible. Then run up to the castle and find Dumbledore. We're not far from the castle, you should be able to get there quickly." "What are you going to do?" asked Hermione. "Doing my saving people thing, remember?" Harry said, jumping out of the carriage and towards the source of the spells. "Be careful Harry...." whispered Hermione, before hopping out of the carriage and doing as Harry asked.
Harry jumped out behind her, but went the other way, towards the cloaked figure. As he got there, he saw that many of the DA members that had already taken up fight were loosing, and sorely. He got there, dodged a Disarming spell, and sent one himself to his attacker. He grabbed the wand, snapped it and tossed it aside. Maybe the wrong choice he thought, because now the Death Eater was trying to attack the Light side physically. As he lunged at Seamus Finnigan, Harry sent a well-aimed Body Bind his way and blocked him. Then he spun ninety degrees and sent two quick succession stunners at the group of Death Eaters who were advancing towards one of the carriages that carried First Years. He decided this was not going good.
Harry looked towards the Death Eaters again. What he saw then was something that would be in his nightmares for a long time;
Lying on the floor infront of the wall of advancing Deatheaters lay a large cloaked figure in a dark pool of blood which was gushing out of a wound on it's head.
Standing over the body was non other than Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, an evil grin plastered on his face.
"Hagrid." Harry whispered staring unbelivingly at his limp body. "No. Fudge? No, he couldn't. No. This isn't real. This isn't happening"
"I'm afraid that it is real Potter. And it is happening." A cold voice penetraded his thoughts sending a wave of fear through his body.
"You should have listened to me Potter when i contacted you last time, now i'll just have to show you why you must join me."
Harry's scar burned, Voldemort was getting in his head again. Just the thought of Voldemort trying to get into his head again was starting to really piss him off, and having the mother of all headaches, scar enduced wasn't helping at all. This time harry lost it.
"Thats it. Get out of my head. I'll show you why Dumbledore isnt' the only person you should fear." Harry didn't yell this at any one inparticular, but he did mean it mostly for Voldemort.
Harry's face contorted with rage as he fired a reductor curse at Hagrids killer, that took the murderers wand arm off at the shoulder making him crumple down in pain. The pain that Harry would inflict in this fight would be nothing compared to the pain Harry was going through now. Cedric was the first to die infront of him, Sirius was the second and gave his life to protect Harry, his friends had all gotten seriously hurt becuase of him... it would not happen again this time the death eaters would stay down.
The members of the DA were throwing curses and spells toward any death eaters that they could get shots off at.
"REDUCTO" Harry seemed to favor this curse now because he used it on almost anything that got in his way, this time it was a turned over carriage, the wreakage caused by the curse sent Death eaters running for new cover. Before they could get there they were picked off and stunned by the DA or had holes burned through them by Harry's reductor curses.
With The Da and the teachers having arrived the Death eaters were begining to thin out. and Harry was close to the First Years now, and the death eater attacking them had his mask half off allowing Harry to see who it was.
"Avada Kedavra" Goyle senor shouted with a manic grin.
Harry used his wand to throw a cobble stone in the path of the sickly green curse. the stone shattered to dust as the curse dissapated over it.
"REDUCTO" the curse flying past Goyle's face got his attention away from the first years and on to Harry. "You wont get away with hurting people any more, Goyle. And when I find Voldemort he wont get away with it either."

*

The people who have taken part in this are:

• SoulShine
• Harry/Hermione 4eva
• MyOb
• Karenkate_kitty
• Harryloveshermione1999
• Obsessedharryfan
• Hermione's Twin

I've decided to change thigs up a bit here, the people who wrote parts will get direct credit as their names are above their contributions.

And lets go......

(Myob)
Goyle stared at Harry, and then smiled. No, not smiled, grinned. He started laughing uncontrollably, and doubled over laughing. He looked at Harry with a glint in his dark eyes.
"You mean, you intend to stop the Dark Lord? You, a little half blood, Mudblood lover, supporter of that fool you call Headmaster? No way!! Look at yourself! You can't even fire a curse right!..." He soon discovered this was not true. Harry sent him Leg-Locker Curse. After that he walked towards Goyle slowly, and pushed him to the ground with his foot. He then crouched and looked Goyle in the eye, inches from his face. He then started speaking to him in a low, calm whisper.
"Never ever insult Professor Dumbledore and Muggleborns in front of me, or else I'll make you wish you had never joined that lord of yours." He smacked him on the chest and stood up, leaving a scared Death eater on the ground. he now had a list of death Eater enemies he would like to take revenge on: Bellatrix Lestrange, Dolohov and Fudge. But his real enemy was Voldemort, as he was the real cause of all the pain he had suffered.
He looked around, and up at the dark sky. He saw, right above him, a small red dot coming towards him: Fawkes was descending, what looked like a black hat in it's beak. As the magnificent Phoenix was coming nearer to the ground, it dropped the hat, which Harry caught with no problem. In his hands was the Sorting Hat, the ruby studded hilt of Gryffindor's sword revealing itself from the interior. Harry understood: he had shown loyalty to Dumbledore, and Fawkes had done the same thing as in the Chamber of Secrets.
He pulled the magnificent sword out of the hat, and turned to face the Death Eaters again. For a second, everything froze as all the Dark Wizards saw what he was holding in his right hand. Then, everyone sprang back. He looked at Dumbledore, who was fity feet to his right, and Dumbledore nodded at him.
He raised his wand to cast a spell, when he heard that same voice that had been in his head right after Hagrid's death: Voldemort's. Everything froze.
"Wel, well Potter, it looks like dear dear Gryffindor sent you something. You really think that pathetic sword is going to stop me?? You are going to die no matter how many weapons you have."
"I don't think, Tom, that there will be more deaths today. So if it is your wish to kill, I am the one you will have to confront. Now, if you do not leave on your own, I will have to make you leave with my own ways." He fingered his wand, and many Death Eaters took a step back. Voldemort was looking like he had no intention to duel with Dumbledore, so he made a motion to his servents, and with a collective 'pop' they were all gone.
Harry collapsed to his knees near Hagrid. Ron and Hermione joined him after a few minutes, and the three of them wept for their old giant friend. Harry, between sobs remembered the moment when he found out he was a wizard, that he would be going to Hogwarts and leave the Dursleys...
He closed his eyes, and the exhaustion of the whole day got to him. He vaguley remembered being lifted and brought to Hogwarts.
(Harry/Hermione 4eva)
Harry could hear quiet whispers surrounding him, on all sides. He was lying something comfortable, which he guessed was a bed, and judging from the amount of different whispers he guessed he was not in his Bed in the Gryffindor tower.
He openend his eyes too see the bright Hospital wing, crammed with students and teachers alike. Most of them lying on beds with somesort of injury and others standing visiting the hurt patients.
He looked to his left and saw Seamus Finnigan with a bandage around his head, which had turned a blood red colour.
To his right he saw Hermione sitting up in her bed being treated by Madame Pomfery for what looked like a nasty cut to her face and a broken leg.
In the bed opposite Neville Longbottem was talking in a sullen voice to Dean Thomas who appeared to be unharmed, or at least cured from what ever injury he had sustained.
Lavender Brown was on a bed next to him, Cho Chang on the next, Ginny on the other, Ron, Mcgonagall, Flitwick, Lupin, Parvati...So many people had been hurt in that one battle, Hagrid had died. What was going to happen during the war.
That was the first battle, the first of many, and Harry wasn't sure if the people fighting could fight for much longer.
(MyOb)
The whole school was in an uproar fro the next week and a half. All classes were suspended, because many of the professors had been injured. The students who hadn't fought were to keep inside the school and were restricted to certain corridors.
Harry left the Hospital Wing at midday of the second of September. Ron was still there, so he and Hermione, who'd been released with him, were in the library. Harry had decided to start studying new spells, curses, jinxes and hexes to grow his magical abilities. Currently, the two were in the Restricted Section, since there was no Madam Pince to stop them: she had experience with healing, and so at the moment she was assisting Madam Pomfrey.
The two were researching new topics for the DA. Harry felt one of the first things to discuss were Healing Charms and first aid spells to be used on the front. They had already found what fitted them perfectly: it was a simple spell that would stop bleeding and reduce the pain.
Harry was leafing through a book he had found called DEFENSIVE SPELLS FOR A PERFECT DEFENSE. He wasn't paying much attention, since Hermione already had a long list on a piece of parchment. They were planning to study them that afternoon in the Common Room.
They sat in silence, as Hermione concentrated on the book in front of her. She suddenly lifted her head and saw Harry looking at her. She smiled and said,
"Found anything?"
"No, nothing. Hermione...I think we should start practicing now...look at how many we have already."
"I think you're right. So, why don't we practice here a bit?" She got up in a no-nonsense way and said: "We should start with...”
(SoulShine)
"We should start with Iussum mentis*" finished Hermione, although she looked way to happy about this enchantment.
Harry simply shrugged, and replied "Try it on me."
Hermione pointed her wand at his head and performed the spell, pink smoke came out of her wand and hit Harry in the face. Harry didn't feel at all different than before.
"Do jumping jacks."
Harry cocked his head to the side and looked confused, "why do you want me to do jumping jacks? We’re in the library. Besides you forgot to say please."
Hermione looked slightly crestfallen but composed herself quickly enough. "I should have known that that spell wouldn't work on you Harry."
"Why not what’s the spell?"
"Its a lesser form of the imperious curse, but instead of controlling your mind it commands it to do something. it doesn’t' work on people who don't take commands well."
"oh well." Harry grinned and had a troublesome glint in his eye. Harry whipped up his wand and said "Iussum mentis" and the pink smoke flowed out of his wand hitting Hermione.
"Hermione, do some jumping jacks, please." Harry's grin only got bigger as Hermione began doing the jumping jacks.
After a minute Harry pulled a chair over and sat in it watching Hermione doing the jumping jacks. After four Harry spoke again, "I can sit here all day until you fight the spell off. So one of two things are going to happen either your going to fight the spell off, or your going to get a really good cardio workout."
Harry continued to sit there watching Hermione.
(Harry/Hermione 4eva)
After about 10 minutes Hermione stopped and looked like she was about to collapse from exhaustion.
"You threw it off." He said happily
"That was hard." She said falling onto the chair next to him.
"But you did it! That's not easy to do."
"I know. I didn't think I would be able to."
"Well you did. What did you hear?" He asked curious to see if she heard the same as he did under the Imperius curse.
"You telling me to keep going, and I was arguing with you and asking why I had to. Then I came out of it." She said
Harry smiled and was very proud of his best friend.
"Well done Hermione. That makes me feel a whole lot better knowing you can throw mind control off."
"But that was a lesser form of the imerius curse, and I doubt people who want to control me will be too bothered about the imperius curse being illegal."
"Well, it's a start. Once you know how to throw it off basically, the rest should come naturally." He said encouraging her.
"Really? You think so?"
"Yeah. I couldn't throw the curse off completely at first. Remember?"
She nodded
"But I got it didn't I?"
"Yes. Yes you did."
"See, and you'll be able to get it just as quickly as I did. If not faster."
"I don't think I'll get it faster." She said looking at him.
"Why not?"
"I just don't think I will, that’s all."
"Well, I do." He answered smiling.
(Karenkate_Kitty)
She smiled meekly. "You're just saying that because I'm your friend but the truth is I'm not as good as you. I'm just book smart, know it all," she said. She looked down on her feet.
Harry had never heard Hermione speak lowly of herself before. She was someone that was sure of just about anything. He had never seen her like that before. She was never uncertain of her capabilities. She knew all the right answers to any question thrown at her. "You're not just book smart Hermione. You're the smartest witch that set foot on Hogwarts and don't ever doubt about it," he said as he took her hands in his.
Hermione looked up and met his gaze. She smiled for the first times since the incident with the death eaters a brilliant smile showed on her face.
Harry didn't know what to do next. Her smile made all his pains go away. The glint of hope in her sparked emotions inside him that he couldn't quite figure…
(Obsessedharryfan)
“MISTER POTTER! MISS GRANGER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!”
Both Harry and Hermione jumped at least a foot. It was the scream of the irritable Madam Pince. She was holding a book called Desperate Charms For Desperate Patients .
“I shall be talking to the Head of your House and I’ll make sure you’ll get at least three weeks of detention for being in the Restricted Section without a note from a teacher!!!” she bellowed. “And practising spells in the LIBRARY?!?! I expected better from you, Miss Granger,” pointing at her. Her voice was more threatening than Professor Umbridge’s false, sweet and definitely alarming one. “GET OUT!!!”
They didn’t need telling twice.
Harry and Hermione gathered their books, stuffed them inside their bags and ran out of the library as quick as possible, heading for the Gryffindor Tower.


*

(Harry/Hermione 4eva)
"What was she doing back in the Library?" Harry asked as they threw their selves unceremoniously onto the couch by the fire.
"Maybe everyone's been treated." Hermione answered
"Surely people will need extra care. I mean the injuries they had were really bad." He said, once again drowning in guilt. *It's my fault*
"Yeah, but remember they must have magical remedies for everything."
"But, why aren't they back here then?" He asked looking around the deserted common room.
"They need to be kept in for observation?" She offered.
"I suppose so."
"So, do you want to practise the spells again?"
"Nah, I need a rest."
"A rest? You sat down watching me do jumping Jacks for 10 minutes!"
"Yeah, that was strenuous!" He defended
"How?"
"Well, I had to stop myself from lifting the curse. Not that watching you wasn't entertaining." He said slyly
"So I was entertainment?" She said in mock indignation.
He said nothing, but raised his eyebrows and smiled in response.
"You're dead Potter!" She said trying to grab him, but he was too quick for her, and jumped out of reach before she could get him.
He ran around the oppostie side of the couch from where she was standing looking at him as though she was going to kill him.
"C'mon." He said challenging her.
"Fine!" She muttered before moving to the left, so did he. She moved to the right, he mimicked her actions. She moved to the left again and he did the same.
She made to go right, so did he, but she caught him out and jumped onto the couch running as fast as she could on the squashy material making up the comfortable seat.
She jumped to grab him but he took a step backwards so she landed on the floor.
"Thats it!" She yelled jumping up and chasing Harry around the common room weaving in and out of tables and chairs, knocking several over in the process.
"Get here Potter!" She screamed as she bounded over a fallen wooden chair.
"Say you give up and I will." He answered running back by the couch.
"Never!"
Harry wasn't looking where he was going as he spoke to her and tripped over a pile of Hermiones books on the floor.
"Hah! If I can't get you my books can!" She said walking up to him sprawled on the floor.
He wasn't going to let her be smug for long.
He grabbed her ankle as she went to walk away making her scream as she nearly fell.
"Let go!"
"No."
"Oh come on Harry, don't be a sore looser." She teased
"I haven't lost. Yet."
"Yes you have, I caught you."
"No, technically I caught you."
"No, you didn't. You're on the floor and I'm standing, victorious!"
He pulled hard on her ankle making her loose balance and fall next to him.
"I'm sorry, what were you saying Mione?"
"You're gonna die." She said about to tickle him to death. but once again, he was faster and got to her before she could get him, and proceeded in tickling her mercilessly.
(MyOb)
"STOP, Harry, STOP!!" yelled Hermione. She was gasping for air while Harry was over her tickling her mercilessly. She just had to reach her wand, and she could show The Boy Who Lived that this title would soon be old.
She moved her hand to her ankle and pulled her wand out from a special holder she had been given at Christmas by Tonks.
Hermione rolled over and quickly said "Incarcerous" pointing her wand at Harry. Ropes shot out of her wand tip and Harry was bound to the floor in no time.
Hermione walked very slowly, smirking, towards Harry.
"This, Potter, is the reason you should never challenge the 'best witch to set foot on Hogwarts in the last century', as you said just back there in the library."
She bent down and said, "So, Harry Potter, would you do me the favour of continuing duelling with me, so I'll show you what a good witch is really?"
She was smiling by now, and as Harry nodded, her smile increased. She waved her wand and the ropes disappeared, and in the blink of an eye Harry was standing before her, her own wand in his left hand, and his Phoenix Cored wand pointing at her chest. Harry smiled at her and raised his eyebrows.
"Are you sure?" he asked with a serious face.
"You bet"
Hermione's hand went to his chest and she pushed. Her right foot had slipped behind his leg and as she pushed she raised her foot. Harry was now on the ground, two wands trained on him. She gave him his wand back and they stared at each other for a second before Harry stood and said, "Well, you made me tire now, so I'll take a rest. You?"
"What? Oh yes, I will too."
So that was how Dean Thomas found two members of the Famous Trio: sleeping on one of the massive couches of the Gryffindor Common Room.

*
(SoulShine)
Harry was sleeping soundly; he was warm, laying somewhere soft. He just felt really good, didn't know why he just did, and it would be even better if it weren't for that noise. It sounded like a snicker, no several of them.
Harry woke up and realized several things at once: all he could see was brown, He was holding something that was warm, it was breathing against his neck, and had some really nice curves. Harry's eyes focused and he blew the hair away from his eyes, now that he could see, he didn't want to. Dean Thomas was trying to stifle his laughter, Neville was crying holding a pillow to his nose and mouth trying to quite his own chuckles. Ron was grunting trying to hold his laughter in. Lavander and Parvati were both crying while still maintaining a dreamy look in their eyes.
Harry wasn't in the mood for this, he pulled his wand out pointed it right in Deans face, and motioned that he should gather every one and get them out. Dean didn't seem to think this was funny anymore and got every one out.
When the only sound heard was that of the fire, Harry fell back asleep.

*
(Hermione’s Twin)
When he woke up the next morning, he found Hermione staring at him. "Morning," he said and stifled a yawn.
"Er--Morning. Did we sleep here the entire night?" He nodded. "And did anyone see us?"
He frowned. "Yeah."
"Who?"
"Er...there was Ron and Dean and Neville and Parvati and Lavender--"
"Oh, no, not Parvati and Lavender," she groaned and sat up. "I am going to be tormented about this."
"Yeah, me too. The boys were laughing pretty hard."
Hermione blushed. "What did you say?"
"Nothing. I just pointed my wand at them."
"Harry!" she scolded, but a smile was on her face.
His stomach rumbled. "Hungry?" he asked her.
"A little."
"Great. Why don't we go change into a new pair of robes and I'll met you back here," he suggested.
"Sure." She got up and stretched. "See you soon."
Harry got up and headed for the boys dormitory. When he opened the door, he found Neville, Dean, Seamus, and Ron staring at him.
"So Harry," Ron began.
(SoulShine)
"What happened exactly? With the common room looking like that it must have been wild."
Harry rolled his eyes; thank god he wasn't like the rest of them. Harry grinned evilly, this was going to be fun. "You guys want to know what happened?"
They looked at him wide eyed and nodded. Harry had them in the palm of his hand.
"OK it started like this. With every one else hurt we were looking up spells in the library." They were still wide eyed. "and Hermione wanted to try them out. And we did, the spell she cast had no effect on me what so ever, and after a while she was able to fight the spell off as well. Then Pince found us and yelled at us to get out. so we ran back to the common room." their mouths were hanging open. "Of course she wasn't too happy with me for getting us kicked out of the library, but that didn't last to long and we began to play around a dual a bit. Spells flying all over the place." Harry couldn't keep stringing them along like this, it was too easy. "So after it was decided to be a draw. We realized we were both tired and fell asleep on the couch."
The three boys continued to stare at him, not moving. After a few seconds it really started to weird Harry out, and he shook his hand if front of their faces.
"They passed out... The fact that nothing happened was too much for their minds to take. oh well i still need to get changed, to meet Hermione in the common room to go get some food."
(Karenkate_kitty)
Harry dashed down the stairs. He waited in the common room for Hermione to arrive. The place was quiet with only a few students going about their early morning activities. He sat by the couch where he spent the night with Hermione. The thought actually seemed a bit awkward at first but he reminded himself that she was his best friend after all.
"Hey, sorry I took so long. Parvati and Lavender won't let me out of the room unless I tell them what happened last night. I told them we practiced spells and got really tired and fell asleep. They won't believe me. I finally resorted to threatening them that I'll hex them if they won't let me pass," Hermione said as she hurriedly went down the stairs.
"The guys asked me the same thing. Of course I told them the truth and they had the weirdest expression," Harry said as he and Hermione started heading out of the common room.
"So where are they now?" Hermione asked as she got out of the portrait hole.
"They're probably still on the floor. The four rascal probably thought something happened," Harry commented.
Hermione went into a deep shade of pink. Harry realized that the idea was a bit embarrassing even to his best friend.
She's a girl after all.
(Obsessedharryfan)
Harry and Hermione pushed the portrait open and clambered out. They walked down towards the Great Hall together, hand in hand. For some strange reason, Harry did not want to let go. Hermione didn’t seem to neither since her grip was a bit too tight. Her face was still kind of pink and Harry realized that she was grinning.
When they entered the Great Hall, the usual talking suddenly stopped. Everybody’s eyes were on them.
“Do you think they already know?” whispered Hermione.
“Maybe…” replied Harry, worrying. “C’mon, I don’t want to meet the Slytherins.”
It was when they sat down, they recognized that there were unusual decorations by the teachers’ table. Harry knew at once, since he had seen it only once before. There were thick long coal-black drapes, and he knew that it was a mark of grieving for Hagrid. As Hermione pulled a pitcher of pumpkin juice towards him, Harry saw the sniggering Slytherins and he felt white-anger licking inside of him, wanting to punch all of them in the face.
Then suddenly the talking stopped. Harry looked across the vast hall towards where all of the students were looking.
(Harry/Hermione 4eva)
Dumbledore was standing up from his chair. Harry knew that he never would want to hear his speech.
He felt Hermione take his hand in hers again, offering him her support, for which he was extreamly greatful.
Dumbledore started speaking in a very sullen, and saddened voice, this was not like the Dumbledore the school knew.
"As you are all aware the war has begun. We all knew this day was coming, but it was still a shock when it did. We are prepared to face the attacks that the school will endure. However I do not think it will be profitable to send any of you home, as you will be safer here than anywhere else on the planet. That I can ensure you. You are in no more danger here than you would be in at home, and so I think it will be best if we continue with the school year as normally as possible."
The part of Dumbledores speech Harry was dreading the most came, he felt Hermiones hand squeeze his own.
"Now, I know that you are all also aware that we have already lost a very valuble member of the team of Hogwarts and I'm sure you all feel his death close to your heart as I do and you will treasure Hagrid in your soul for a very long time to come.
Please lets have a miunte silence to remember the best Gamekeeper Hogwarts has ever had. Rubeus Hagrid."
The entire school fell silent.
All but a certain Slytherin who was whispering to his cronies.
(MyOb)
As Harry saw this, he started going mad. Hermione followed his gaze to the Slytherin table and then placed her free hand on his shoulder. This immediately calmed him. Malfoy would pay later. Harry waited for the minute of silence to end, and then every student went back to their previous business. Harry calmly finished his Pumpkin Pie and then stood. He shot a glare towards Malfoy and his cronies. He would be ready to break their big necks anytime.
They would pay for everything they had said and done to Hagrid.
Harry walked briskly, a tear spilling from his eye, towards the doors of the Great Hall as mail arrived. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and that Nott boy standing and following him out. Malfoy then started in his slow disgusting drawl,
"Tsk tsk, Potter, crying for the big oaf? Miss him? What, Pothead missing his big friend? No more Hagrid to help little Potter?"
Harry stood still with his back to them, as the other three were heard snickering, thinking up already a strategy for taking the four out simultaneously. His tears had stopped, and he was inching towards his wand. He could even try a little wandless summoning spell to get his wand quickly.
"What, lost your tongue, Potter? Or did someone take it?"
A small crowd of students that had been exiting the Great Hall had started to form, and were making a ring around the five.
Harry slowly turned to face Malfoy, who was wearing an evil sneer on his pale face. He told him, "Stop now, Malfoy, or I'll take your tongue."
"Hear hear, people, powerful Harry Potter will show us how he can- "
But his next words were never uttered, because now Malfoy was staring at the wand pointed between his eyes, the wand that belonged to Harry Potter.
Harry had summoned it and in the blink of an eye had been near Malfoy.
Suddenly a student ran from the crowd. Hermione Granger ran up behind Harry and put her arms around his waist, feeling his six-pack. She then whispered to him, "Please, Harry, not here, not now, please. You will eventually attack him, just not now.
Her words calmed Harry considerably, and he lowered his wand while stepping back. He grabbed Hermione's hand and started to lead her away from the Junior Death Eaters. Just as they were reaching the stairs, Malfoy spoke again.
"So, with the giant oaf dead, you use the Mudblood to keep yourself busy, Potter?"
(SoulShine)
Harry stopped for a moment to let it sink in, He popped his neck to both sides. In the next instant Hermione's grip around his waist was gone and he was directly infront of Nott, who was already falling over with his eyes rolled back in his head, blood streaming from his nose were Harry's left fist hit him. It wouldn't do to have Nott curse him in the back while Harry took out Malfoy.
Harry took a step forward, and punched Malfoy in the face with his right. Harry could almost picture Malfoy with a huge split lip. Harry was still feeling far to angry to let Crabbe and Goyle get off. Guilty by Association.
Surprisingly it only took Harrys left elbow to Crabbe's jaw to lay the idiot flat on his back. Turning around Harry saw the shocked expression on Goyle's face before Harry's heel wiped any recognizable look off of Goyle's fat face. With the last of Malfoy's troll like friends taken care of, he could finish what he wanted to.
Harry reached down with his left hand and grabbed Malfoy by the collar of his cloak, and jerked him up. Blood was running down Malfoy's chin and neck, pitiful.
Malfoy looked at harry wide eyed with terror.
"Listen to me. Never insult Hagrid, Hermione, or any of my friends again. And you can tell Voldemort that i'll get him as well."
The sound of Harry punching Malfoy in the face echoed like a gunshot in the entrance hall.
(Obsessedharryfan)
Malfoy, recognizing defeat, motioned to his faithful cronies and headed their way down to their dungeon, each trying to look after their injuries themselves.
“Harry, you have to stop losing your temper like that,” said Hermione, making their way to the Gryffindor tower. “You could have lost about 100 house points and you risked expulsion again. But really, those –“ then Hermione said something that made Harry jump in shock, “- really deserved it.”
The people in their way ran away from them thinking that Harry would punch anyone. He was still fuming with anger and his hands were curled into fists. Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and his anger deminished soon. But instead, it was replaced by sadness. Why? It’s all my fault…
Harry realized that they were at the Fat Lady’s portrait only when Hermione muttered “Flibbertigibbet.” The portrait swung open and they both crawled over the ledge. They decided that they would rest for a bit and then go back to practising spells. Harry and Hermione grabbed the best chairs by the flickering flames that was the fire. Hermione grabbed her bag, wrenched it open, and took out the never-ending scroll of spells. Harry shifted his chair a bit so that he could see the window viewing Hagrid’s cabin. It’s all my fault… Harry could see Fang waiting for Hagrid by his cabin door. Why…
(HarrylovesHermione1999)
“Harry?” Hermione’s timid voice broke through his grieving thoughts.
He couldn’t answer her, this was all his fault
Everything.
All the pain in the wizarding world was because of him. If he spoke it would just bring more heartache.
“Harry? What’s wrong? Please talk to me.”
“It’s nothing.”
“You can’t lie to me. I can see right through you.”
She was right, she could see through him, all the times he tried to hide his emotions from her, she knew, somehow, she could tell exactly how he was feeling, and exactly when he was lying.
He sighed and looked at her worried face.
“It’s just, everything that’s happened is because of me.”
“No Harry. Don’t blame yourself. None of this is your fault.”
“Yes it is. My parents, Cedric, Sirius, Hagrid. They’re all gone because of me.”
“No. They’re gone because of Voldemort. He did this. Not you.”
“If I wasn’t here, they would all be alive. Happy. Well. If that damned Prophecy didn’t exist everything would be OK.”
“But we don’t know what the Prophecy said… do we?” Noticing the look on Harry’s face she continued. “Do you know what it says Harry?”
He flinched slightly and very slowly, he nodded.
(MyOb)
"So you heard it?"
"No, it broke when Neville had it, and since all the Order members were duelling all around we didn't hear it. Later, though, in Dumbledore's office, he showed it to me through his pensieve. Do you remember the letters on the glass?"
She nodded slowly, her brow furrowed in concentration.
"Well," Harry continued, "the first ones were the initials to Sybill Trelawney, since she gave the prophecy, and she gave it to Dumbledore. It was his whole name back at the Department of Mysteries."
Hermione nodded. It made sense. "What did it say?" she asked.
"Basically, it said that the one able to stop Voldemort would be born as July ends, that Voldemort would mark him as his equal," he raised his hair and showed her the scar," and that he would have powers that he didn't know about. Also, it said that neither can live as the other lives, or something of the sort. This means that either I kill him, or he kills me. In the end, it will be down to the two of us. If I can't beat him, then no one shall.
Harry sighed and looked at her. He let everything sink in. She was looking extremely sad. I shouldn't have told her this...it is making her sad... were Harry's current thoughts.
"Harry, I'm really sorry. I truly am. I promise you I will always be there if you need me. We will train together, ok?? And also promise me you will learn Occlumency. You will kill Voldemort. I have complete faith in you."
Harry nodded and they hugged each other. Hermione's last words were echoing through his mind and, he had absolutely no idea why, he felt at peace.

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


Iussum= command
Mentis= mind
Your fully aware of the things that you’re doing you do it because you were told to. it works by using some ones natural tendency to obey commands. Therefore it is not an illegal spell, and is labelled as an enchantment.
Explanation of Iussum Mentis Spell used by Harry to make Hermione do Jumping Jacks, by SoulShine AKA Josh.


More to come soon.

~Bec


Next post to be added


Latin Dictionary ~Link by Josh.

The people who have taken part in this are:

• SoulShine
• MyOb
• Karenkate_kitty
• Harryloveshermione1999
• Obsessedharryfan

Big huge massive gigantic thanks to Mart (Hogwarts Sniper) for compiling this Easy-Read part!
THANK YOU MART!!!

Right, off we go...

(ObsessedHarryFan)
Harry awoke early the next the by one of Ron’s unusually loud, disturbing and alarming snores. Harry stared up at the blur, which was the top of his four-poster bed for about five minutes before getting out of bed and putting his glasses on. Nobody was awake, so Harry crept silently towards the door of his dormitory, opened it, and slid outside. Harry sat down onto the best chairs by the now extinguished fire and looked at the list of spells Hermione left down last night after she expertly persuaded Harry to go through them together. There were all sorts of charms, curses and jinxes. It seemed that Harry wouldn’t need to research for at least a year since he had this list and the set of books given by Lupin and Sirius… For some reason, Harry did not feel as uncomfortable as usual when he thought about Sirius.

The day before had gone smoothly. The trio walked to their spot near the lake by the tree where the Mauraders usually had rested. Then games of wizard chess between Harry and Ron, and even Hermione decided to join in for a game (although she lost terribly even to Harry).

Harry then heard footsteps by the stairs leading to the girl’s dormitories and found Hermione in her pink fluffy night-robes looking at him. “Oh, hi Harry!” said Hermione brightly, rubbing her eyes. “I just came down to get the list I forgot to take up last night. I didn’t think anybody would be up right now…”
“Here,” said Harry, handing her the scroll. “We don’t want to lose our plans for the DA for the next years do we?” Hermione blushed a bit. “Do you want to go down for breakfast? I know it’s probably too early, but we could go slowly,” asked Harry, gazing into Hermione’s chocolate brown eyes. He knew that she couldn’t resist.
“Sure, Harry. I’ll just get changed.”
“Ok, I will too.”
Harry came back down first. After Hermione came back down, they pushed the portrait open, waking up the grumpy Fat Lady in the process. They walked silently, hand in hand. They entered the Great Hall and found Professor McGonagall facing them. “Good morning, Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger,” said Professor McGonagall, looking curiously at them. “I was just about to go up to the Gryffindor Tower to tell you something.”
“Yes Professor?” asked Harry politely.
“You’ll be glad to know that you have been made Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. The classes are going to resume today, too. Here are your schedules,” said Professor McGonagall, handing them their schedules.
“Oh, congratulations Harry!” beamed Hermione.
“Thanks, Hermione.” Harry was quite pleased with himself. However, as Harry thought about the responsibilities of a Quidditch Captain, his happiness diminished. His schedule was already full, and he now had to think about plays for the team and such. Then there were the try-outs.
“Oh, and one more thing. Your Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape will begin today as well, at seven thirty,” said Professor McGonagall very sternly.
Harry had forgotten about the Occlumency lessons. His heart sank as he pictured himself in Snape’s dreadful office and the greasy git trying to get into his mind.
“Oh don’t worry Harry. You’ll do much better than last time,” encouraged Hermione, reading the expression on Harry’s face as they took their seats. Gradually the Great Hall began to fill up. Ron joined them soon and pulled a large plate of bacons towards him and began to eat like a pig. Hermione looked at him in disgust. After a while, Harry, Hermione, and Ron headed up towards the Charms class, their first N.E.W.T. class ever.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

“Well that wasn’t so bad,” commented Hermione on the way out.
“Yeah, but we could have done without the twenty minute speech about how important N.E.W.T.s are. We already suffered from that last year,” grunted Ron. The limping and still squeaking Professor Flitwick had set them a three-foot essay.
The day did not get improve as it progressed. Now they had a mountain load of homework to do, but Ron’s was the smallest since he took the least classes. The Defence Against the Dark Arts class was as brilliant as any student would expect who has been taught by Remus Lupin before.
After the Occlumency lesson, Harry went up to the Gryffindor tower trying to clear his mind. He gave the password to the Fat Lady, and as soon as the portrait opened, he was cornered by the remaining members of the Quidditch team, Katie Bell, Jack Sloper and Andrew Kirke. “Harry, the Quidditch try-outs are scheduled for Friday. We really need you to shape up the Quidditch team this year. Please, please make sure you don’t make a pig’s ear out of it,” said the team in a threatening and pleading way.
“Ok… Of course I won’t.”
“Good,” they replied.
Harry watched as the members of the Quidditch team crawled over the ledge and into the common room and soon, Ron came out. “I tried to stop them from setting the try-outs early, mate. But they said that we’d need more practises.”
“It’s okay.”

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Friday had come soon compared to the mountainous amount of homework and the tiring Occlumency lessons with Snape Harry had. Harry woke up early again, this time, not awoken by Ron’s snores but his anxiety to go back onto the Quidditch field. He knew that he couldn’t go back to sleep and decided to head to the Quidditch field for a quick ride. So Harry went back inside, grabbed his Quidditch robes and his Thunderbolt, which vibrated at his touch, and crept back out.
He jumped down the stairs, three steps at each time, pushed open the grumpy Fat Lady’s portrait, and headed towards the Entrance Hall.
After Harry had changed, he went outside, feeling the cool morning air brush his face. The grass was wet from the refreshing morning dew. Harry mounted the broom and kicked off the ground.
It felt as if he had just found out that he was a wizard again. It felt fantastic to be back to Quidditch. The Thunderbolt was another addition. Harry felt that he no longer needed to change the course of it by touch, but only by thoughts. He swerved, dived sharply and turned. Then suddenly, a very soothing and familiar voice spoke from seats. “Nice flying, Harry. Maybe I should try-out too.”

(HarryLovesHermione1999)

Harry looked down and saw Hermione smiling at him from the stands. He flew down to the stands and said surprisingly,

"You? I thought you were afraid of flying?" She smiled and said, "Me too, but until I rode with you that night, I knew I wanted to try. This year, I'm going to do things I've never done before, like Quidditch. I just hope I can get on the team, captain." Harry laughed a little bit and said,

"But you don't have a broom." Hermione frowned and said, "I forgot." Then Harry got an idea, he pulled out his wand and said, "Accio Firebolt!" He saw it flying towards him and he caught it and gave it to Hermione. Her jaw dropped and said, "Thank you." Harry then said,

"How about you fly with me for a bit, so I can see how good you really are." Hermione glaredat him and started to go down to the pitch.

When Hermione arrived, Harry landed and he said, "Okay, mount your broom." Hermione put her leg over the broom and she took off and Harry screamed at her, "Hey wait up!" He flew after her.

Hermione's pretty good, thought Harry, maybe she will make the team.

(Karenkate_Kitty)

He had never seen her fly that fast before as a matter of fact the last time she saw her flying he even felt her cringing in his clutches. He had to be extra careful when she rode with him the last time. He could not believe that Hermione Granger was actually racing with him on a broomstick hundreds of feet of the ground.

"Hey, you know we can go a lot faster than this?" Hermione commented as she flew past Harry the second time.

"Hermione, you asked for it," Harry said and he went faster with his thunderbolt. His new broom was easier to manage than his Firebolt which was already quite a fascinating broomstick he didn't expect that a broom would be more manageable than his old one but the Thunderbolt proved him wrong.

He was going really fast but Hermione was trying to keep pace with him. She had that determined look on her face, like the time when she was seriously studying for their O.W.Ls. Harry thought that she kind of looked cute.

"Harry, are you slowing down for me. Don't worrying I'll keep up with you no matter what," Hermione called at him. He realized that she was edging away from him and fast. He thought that he must have been lost in thought for a while.

"Hermione follow me. Let's go a bit higher," he called out to her when he dashed past her.

Hermione determinedly followed behind.

(HarryLovesHermione1999)

"So how am I doing, captain?" Harry smiled and he looked at her and said, "You are doing really well." Hermione grinned mischeviously and she said,

"I think I should thank you properly." She flew next to him and Harry grinned right back.

Their lips were barely touching when they heard a voice, "Hey Captain Harry, get down here for try..." Ron stopped talking as Harry and Hermione flew down. Ron's jaw dropped and he said to Hermione,

"You, fly?" He started to laugh so hard, he fell to the ground, holding his sides. Hermione rolled her eyes and said over Ron's laughing, "At least I'm not embrassasing myself in front of the Quidditch Team!" Ron stopped laughing and Katie Bell shook her head and said,

"Ron you're such a git." He stood up and glared at Hermione, she glared right back and she said,

"If I get on the team, I'll be your worst nightmare you, if bug me." Ron nodded quickly and Harry said,

"Okay whoever is trying out, stand in a line in front of me."

Hermione, Ginny, and the of the people trying out stood in front of Harry and he said to Ron, " Fly up to the goalposts." Ron did a salute and said, "Yes sir, captain!" Harry shook his head, he turned back to the other players and said,

"Now, one by one, we're going to see who's the best and at the end of the try-out, we will choose two new chasers." He slightly glanced at Hermione and she grinned. Harry grinned back and said, "First up is..." Harry made a surprised face, "Colin Creevey." Colin smiled and went forward and he said to Harry, "Don't be so surprised, just watch." Colin mounted his broom and flew toward the goalposts.

He missed four out of five. That's pretty pitiful. Next up was Ginny, she flew up and she said to Ron, "Look out, or this quaffle will hit your face!" "Bring it on Virginia!" She made a mad face at Ron, "Oooooo! Don't ever call me Virginia again! Your'e going to pay!" She threw the first quaffle and Ron saved it, he blew a raspberry at her and she threw it again and she got it in.

She got three out of five in, Harry looked impressed, then Parvati was up, she absolutely blew her chance, then it was Dean, he sucked, and then last but not least, Hermione was up. She winked at Harry and flew off.

Ron smiled at her and said, "You're wasting your time Hermione!" She growled and she threw the quaffle and she got it in right between Ron's legs. "So, going to tease me now Ronald?" He glared at her and screamed, "Try again."

She got all five in, Harry smiled and he called her down and whispered to her, "You were great." She blushed and smiled shyly. He went over to the rest of the team and said, "Okay, who do we pick?" Katie smiled and said, "I say we choose Ginny and Parvati." "What about Hermione?" Harry asked angrily, "She got every shot in!" Katie sighed and said, "Hermione will take every shot if you let her in!" Harry looked at Ron and he said to Katie, "Hermione's got every move down pat, do you see her fake and she got it in anyway?! She's perfect!" "You guys are only saying that because she's your best friend." Harry had enough of this, "I'm the captain and I'm going to choose Hermione and Ginny, got it?" Ron nodded in agreement, so did Anthony and he said, "I agree with Harry, Hermione is perfect for this team." Katie finally agreed.

Harry went back to the other players and said,

"Okay, we've made a decision, Ginny Weasley," Ginny smiled, "... and Hermione Granger." Hermione squeeled and Harry said, "Now Ginny, Hermione practice starts tomorrow after lunch, will give you your uniforms there." They nodded.

Everyone left the Quidditch Pitch except Harry, he was still flying. His thoughts went back to the kiss they almosted shared, Harry wanted to kiss her so bad,why am I thinking about Hermione this way? Sure I wanted to kiss her, she's a beautiful woman, but am I falling in love with her? No Harry don't think that, she's your best friend, she probably doesn't like you that way. Then Harry thought back to the grin they shared after the try-out, or does she?

(MyOb)

Only time can tell, his conscience said, the one that had Hermione's voice.

Harry sighed and pushed his new broom towards the castle. He flew directly to the Common room windows and stepped in. He ran up the stairs and, once in the dormitory, pulled out from one of his drawers the charmed Galleon for the DA meetings. He put the tip of his wand to it and changed the numbers.

"It is time we start this again, you reckon?"

Harry spun around to meet the stranger, as he hadn't recognized the voice. Neville was standing in the thresold, leaning on the wall. He smiled to Harry, and he nodded. Neville looked pleased with himself, and said,

"Perfect. I have studied quite some new things this summer, and if you will be happy, I would like to teach our other members some cool tricks. Actually, Harry, we couldeach teach the others some personal useful trick. You could give assignements, like telling each of us to find a new curse for the next meeting or something. Also, Harry, if you don't mind I suggest it, we could expand a bit more, getting new members. After all, the Room of Requirement would give us enough space to fit an army. And since we are an army after all, we should get new members, cause we would need them if anything like the Death Eater attack at the carriages would happen again..."

Harry stared at Neville as he continued listing improvements they could do to the DA. They were all quite good in Harry's opinion, only he wouldn't have imagined Neville suggesting them. Probably after the events at the ministry last summer, he had grown up. This was a new Neville, and a better one indeed. Harry was astonished a person could change so thoroughly in two months, but he was happy Neville had.

As he thought about this, Harry only decided one thing. He'd be a friend to Neville from now on.
(ObsessedHarryFan)
“Thanks, Neville. I’ll try to improve by using your… amazing opinions,” said Harry. “If you have any more, just tell me.”
Neville blushed a bit.
“Thanks, Harry.”
“No problem,” said Harry, as Neville started ranting again.

*~*

Harry was trying to remember Neville’s suggestions for the DA to list them when Hermione entered the Gryffindor common room, red from the excitement of being chosen as chaser. “Hi, Harry!” said Hermione happily.
“Hey Hermione,” Harry replied.
“What’s wrong, Harry? You look… a bit distracted,” said Hermione, worrying if he was ill.
“Nothing’s wrong. In fact, everything’s great… apart from the homework of course…” said Harry, not taking his eyes off the paper. “Hey Hermione, did you notice Neville’s… really changed?” asked Harry.
“Noticed? Harry! Everyone noticed!” exclaimed Hermione. “Well, everyone in Neville’s class did… Just remembered you dropped Herbology…”
“Oh…”
“What are you doing there? I don’t think you’ll be doing homework right after the try-outs…” said Hermione, peering over his shoulders.
“Oh, this? It’s some suggestions from Neville for improving the DA,” said Harry, showing her the long list.
“Neville? Let me see…” said Hermione as she scanned the list. Harry watched her eyes going blurry with excitement, which Harry was familiar with, since she did it every time she opened a textbook. He watched her as her mouth opened and he distinctly heard an utter of a soft “Wow…”

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

The next day after a scrumptious dinner, with the Maurader’s map enabled, the trio walked up to the corridor with the enormous tapestry showing Barnabas the Barmy being thwarted by the moth-eaten trolls. They walked across a certain bit three times, concentrating on what they needed. Soon, a high and polished red door appeared out of nowhere and they entered it, and the humongous room with all sorts of books and Dark Detectors appeared. The room was buzzing with excitement about restarting the most useful and exhilerating club ever. Surprisingly, all of the DA members were already there, including Zacharias Smith. As Harry put his hand in the air, the buzzing instantly vanished.
“Thank you,” said Harry. “First, I want to welcome back every one of you.
“Now, we will be starting with a lesser form of an Unforgivable Curse.” At this, there was a lot of murmuring with either excitement or fear. “However, this spell is not illegal.” And the murmuring instantly quieted.
“The wand movement is like this,” said Harry as he demonstrated it. “And the incantation is lussum mentis. Then, say the order clearly to your opponent. However, this spell will not work for a person who doesn’t take orders well. If you do it correctly, pink smoke will come out of your wand,” explained Harry.”
So… I reckon we should divide into pairs… and start.”
(SoulShine)

Every one began to move into pairs, as harry walked around. Ron had paired up with Hermione, and began to say the spell, sending pink smoke toward Hermione hitting her squarely.

Ron froze for a moment not knowing what to tell her to do. "Ummm, Go and slap malfoy." Hermione just stood there for a moment, but harry could have sworn that she had rolled her eyes.

Hermione took three steps forward, and slapped Ron telling him to go do it himself. While several of the DA members looked at harry to see what he was laughing about.

The other DA members had mixed results, getting the spell wrong, getting it right and the other person shook their head no, or several people were now doing things that they normally wouldn't do.

Hermione tried her hand at the enchantment again, sending pink smoke at Ron.
"Ron, go give Harry a big kiss." Ron puckered his lips and began toward Harry.

Harry blanched, then did the first thing that came to his mind... RUN LIKE HELL.

"RON SNAP OUT OF IT, you dont want to do this. I dont want you to do this."

Harry ran weaving in and out of the DA members hoping to lose Ron, but the weasley's long legs let him catch up and grab Harry's left arm.

Harry was trapped, and Ron's puckered lips were getting closer. Harry did the only thing he could do, he reached out for some thing, anything and his hand found the head of a certain blonde ravenclaw, whos father owned the quibbler.

Pulling her over and placeing her face directly infront of Rons. Harry thanked who ever thought it would be a good idea to close your eyes before you kissed some one that thankfully Rons eyes were closed and didn't realize the new person.

Ron began to kiss her and his grip on harrys arm loosened and fell. Harry walked quickly and quietly away saying, "Some one is soooo going to get jumping jacks for this."

(Karenkate_Kitty)

Everyone was staring at Ron kissing Luna. Harry realized that Ron was not the only one with his eyes close because Luna's pruterberent ones were too.

He found Hermione next to him. "Isn't that cute. Now, I'm having second thoughts about lifting the spell," she whispered to him.

"Well, I don't mind them staying like that for a while but we do have to get on with our DA practice," Harry said with an equally amused look on his face.

Hermione lifted the spell from Ron but he was seemingly enjoying what he was doing. he was holding Luna by her waist and judging from how he was touching her hair. Harry knew that his bestfriend was already aware of who he was kissing. Luna was not doing anything to stop him either.

"Break it up you guys or you might as well get a room," Ginny said.

Ron and Luna realized that every single person in the room was watching them. The two broke apart and were scarlet red on the face.

(Obsessedharryfan)

Everyone in the room broke into uncontrollable laughter as soon as the soon-to-be couple broke apart. “Want me to do the spell on you again Ron?” said Hermione.
“Ickle Ronniekins is all grown up now!!!” teased Harry.
“Shut up,” said Ron, in a kind of stuttering tone. The laughter died away after five minutes and the room was filled with pink smoke again. The cries of “lussum mentis” restarted and the trio went back to practising.
Neville, who was partenered with Ginny this time, fought off the spell after ten minutes, leaving him sweaty. It seemed like all the members were trying extra hard to fight off the spell, or it was just because they didn’t want to end up like Ron. In only about twenty minutes of practising after the Ron&Luna incident, it seemed like everybody in the room could fight off the spell, all except Ron.
The familiar blow of the whistle rang in the air, and everyone lowered their wands and looked up at Harry.

“Why don’t we start on another spell?” suggested Harry. “We still have half an hour left and it looks like most of you can fight off this one.” The members instantly began to murmur again. “Why don’t we try… motum statua?” The members now wore an inquiring look. “The motum statua charm is a spell used to move immobile things around. If the… caster is good enough, he or she can perform it on multiple objects. This charm is pretty advanced, but so are you,” Harry explained and complimented.
“I think we should get out the cushions and practise on them. Or we could use books too,” suggested Hermione.
“Yeah, probably.”
The members slowly brought out a cushion or a book out of the corners and shelves and soon the room was filled with the cries of “motum statua.”

*~*~*~*

More to come next time.

Next post to be added
in the COPY thread ~Pen <-- only COPY and paste. Do not CUT and paste