**Disclaimer - We don't own any of the Harry Potter universe (Surprising we know) **
Harry and Ron had been living in their flat for about a week. Things had been going good and so far no problems. They had managed to stay a safe distance away from Mrs. Weasley as well as not talk about how much they loved being on their own in front of her. That would only result in another bout of wailing and tears that the boys couldn't stand.
There had also been two additional Order meetings, but they were about as productive as the first one they went to. There wasn't any new information. Voldemort had still been keeping a low profile, and it was pretty much the same thing with his followers. There hadn't even been any real Death Eater activity, which is why it worried everyone so much.
Harry hadn't done much of anything except lay around being lazy. He would occasionally be found hanging out at The Three Broomsticks at a table all his own. He had a lot on his mind trying to figure out what Voldemort was up to and flying was his solace.
Ron on the other hand had his hands full working at Fred and George's shop. They had decided with him around that they had a lot more free time to do what they wanted.
"I'll be right there." Ron yelled over his shoulder as someone walked into the shop. He was busy restocking Ton Tongue Toffees to notice who had strolled in.
"I heard you were working here so I thought I would come in to say hello." The mystery person said softly.
Ron turned and did a double take as he realized who it was that was talking to him. "Luna….hi!" The tips of his ears managed to turn a shade of pink.
"Hello Ronald. How have you been?"
"Not too bad. It has been pretty nice to live in my own flat and work here. How is your summer going?"
"It's alright, but it is much better now." Luna gave Ron a dreamy smile, which he didn't catch.
"You're not going off to look for some crazy beast with your dad?"
"No, father had a huge deadline he had to meet for the Quibbler. He's enlisting me to help in my spare time, which means I'm doing a lot of writing."
An awkward silence permeated the area. Ron was silently warring with himself, trying to figure out what to say. "So uh…Luna?" Ron tried to summon his Gryffindor courage.
"Hmmm?" Luna replied dreamily.
"I was wondering," Ron leaned against the shelf he was stocking. He leaned a little too hard as he managed to knock over all of the display. All of the Ton Tongue Toffees and Canary Creams that he had spent all morning stocking were now lying in disarray on the ground.
Turning beet red, he bent down to pick up all of the toffees he had knocked to the ground. His hand grazed against hers as he realized that she was helping him pick them up. Their hands lingered together for a moment until they locked eyes.
"You were going to ask me something Ronald?"
"Oh that…yes well I was wondering if you might, I don't know, well maybe you would, but if you don't that's totally okay, you know, like out to dinner, you and I?" He stumbled harshly over his words.
"Say that again Ron, this time in English." Luna asked even though she knew what he said; she just wanted to see him squirm a bit.
"Do you want to go to dinner?" Ron said a little louder, gaining his confidence just in case his brothers were lurking around. "Well uh, with me of course."
"Id love to, when do you want to go?"
"Well I have to work late at the shop the tonight, so how about tomorrow night I'll meet you at the Golden Dragon at 8:00?" The Golden Dragon had opened in Diagon Alley the previous summer as a more upscale restaurant, but not a suit and tie kind of place.
"I'll see you there." Luna leaned in pressing her lips against his semi-scruffy cheek and left with an extra bounce in her step. All Ron could do was smile, but instantly it was drained from his face.
"Ooooh ickle Ronnikins got a girlfriend," George shouted from behind the counter.
"You see those eyes Fred? Our little brother has got it bad Loony Lovegood." Fred shouted back.
Ron didn't even bother to fight with them. "Don't you guys have something better to do?"
He just went back to stocking the shelves. His mind was still on the soft lips that had just touched his cheek. His brothers looked shocked at Ron and then at themselves before making their way to the back room.
*~*~*
Ron had just gotten home when he came in and saw that Harry was on the couch, his head in his hands. "Hey mate, are you alright?"
Harry looked up at him with a very dazed look. "Yeah mate, I just have had this bloody headache all day." He subconsciously rubbed his scar in a feeble attempt to ease the pain. "I've been practicing occlumancy so it hasn't been aching for awhile, but it just started acting up again today. I am sure that it'll go away if I just lay down for a bit. Do you want to come get me when you are ready for dinner?"
Ron stared at his best friend for a moment and then nodded. He didn't quite know what to do in these situations. He usually tried to play the role of the supportive friend, more of an ear than anything.
Harry watched Ron quietly make his way from the living room down the hall to his room. After he heard the soft click of the door, Harry closed his eyes and let his mind wander, trying to dull out the consistent dull ache in the middle of his head.
The ache had started at some point in the middle of the night. He hadn't been able to pinpoint what it was for either. He hadn't seen any of Voldemort's visions for a little over a year or felt any of his emotions. Snape's occlumancy lessons seemed to have done the trick. It just seemed odd for it to start out of the blue. Something was coming, but what, he just didn't know.
*~*~*
Ron softly closed his door, trying not to make too much noise for Harry. He was ready for dinner now, but he didn't want to bother Harry. He knew that when Harry had the aches and pains that something bad was going to happen. That's usually the way it had always worked before.
He was nervous now, not only for that, but for his impending date with Luna. He didn't know how to really be himself with her because he wanted to impress her, but at the same time she made him feel at ease to the point he didn't have to be someone he wasn't. His typical topics of conversation were quidditch, food, and the occasional story of what happened at the store. That couldn't possibly be that exciting to talk about. He was suddenly filled with dread on the possibility of how badly the night could go. He hoped he wouldn't screw it up too much.
He decided to sneak back out to the kitchen to see if there was anything to snack on. He knew Harry could be out for awhile when his scar really started acting up.
*~*~*
"Wormtail are things going as planned?" the voice deep and raspy, yet commanding all the same.
"Y-Yess my lord. The m-m-muggles will never know what hit them m-my lord." Wormtail stood nervously with his hands behind his back and his head bowed to the floor.
"Make sure you do not fail me this time Wormtail. We will need to take things straight to his heart. It will be just a taste of what is to come." An evil grin spread across his darkened face.
"Now leave me before I dispose of you myself." Voldemort pointed his wand threateningly in Wormtail's direction.
With a quick bow, Wormtail swiftly left the room. He had experienced the wrath of that wand far too many times.
"That's right Potter, I'll get you where it counts." A sinister laugh almost immediately filled the vacant room.
*~*~*
Ron was finishing off a box of his favorite biscuits when he heard loud shouts coming from the living room. He dropped the box and sprinted into the living room to make sure Harry was alright. As he approached him, Harry was tossing and turning, clutching his scar. "No! No! Hermione!"
"Harry mate, wake up!" Ron shook Harry, trying to get him to wake up. "Come on mate, it's a nightmare."
Harry hastily sat up, wand drawn. Ron stared down at the point of Harry's wand, drawing his eyes towards his nose. "Do you really want to do that mate?" There was a smidgen of nervousness in his voice. He knew Harry was a powerful wizard, but he had planned to stay on his good side.
Harry continued to point his wand, beads of sweat dripping down his face. His glasses were skewed on his face and his hair was matted to his forehead. The only sound came from Harry's pulsating breaths.
After what seemed like a lifetime, Harry dropped his wand arm to his side. He stood up but before he had taken two steps, he lost his balance and collapsed back onto the couch.
"Harry, what's going on?" Ron sat down next to him.
"Dream…Voldemort...attack…Hermione…" Harry said between deep ragged breaths.
"Are you sure mate?" Ron asked a bit of uncertainty in his voice. He was hoping that he was wrong.
Harry only nodded in response.
"How about you just sit here and rest a minute, and I'll go get you something to drink. Once you're calm we'll apparate over to headquarters and you can let Dumbledore know. I'm sure he'll know what to do."
Before Harry could say anything, Ron disappeared in the kitchen. Harry's breath started to slow by the time he had returned with a cup of tea.
Harry took the cup in his shaky hands and gulped down the tea. "Let's go mate. We can't just sit here and wait for Voldemort to attack her."
Not wanting to disagree with him any longer, Ron stood and helped Harry to his feet. They apparated with a loud crack at the same time, this time not knocking over anyone when they arrived in the entry hall of Grimmauld Place. They raced down the hall to the room that Dumbledore had taken over as his office. With school out, they knew that he would be spending a lot of his time there.
"Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter I thought I would be seeing you two. What seems to be the problem?" Dumbledore smiled as he looked at both boys ragged and out of breath from behind his enormous mahogany desk.
Ron looked to Harry who just nodded his head. "Harry had a dream that Voldemort is going to attack Hermione." Ron spoke first, allowing Harry to catch his breath.
"Is this true Mr. Potter?"
Harry nodded in response. "I was looking in on Voldemort and Wormtail. They were discussing plans to take out the muggles."
"And how do you know that it is Hermione that he's after? There are muggles all over the place." Dumbledore spoke in a flat tone.
Harry paused for a moment, rubbing his hand over his forehead to cover the rosy tint he knew that would creep there. "I know sir because he spoke of taking things straight to my heart. What other muggles do you know that I care more about?" Harry's voice seemed to get a little louder the more impatient he grew. "She is one of my best friends," he added quickly.
"It seems you may be on to something Mr. Potter, but how do you know that this isn't another ploy? He could be luring you out into the open."
"I can just tell sir. We have to go to the States straight away." Harry looked at Dumbledore, trying to plead with him.
"Mr. Potter, I won't be sending half of our numbers over to the States just on a dream. It will leave an attack here wide open. I'll send a select few individuals over as a look out and then we'll decide from there."
"Why don't you listen to me? Don't you care? Hermione is in trouble!" Harry shouted exasperatedly, he looked to Ron for support.
Ron just looked back at Harry, no expression readable on his face.
"Just great. Everyone thinks I'm making things up again. Well I'm not going to wait around to see if I'm right." Harry stood and strode hurriedly out of the room.
It was apparent the way everyone immediately pretended to look busy outside of the office, that they heard what Harry had said. That had all been listening in and with Harry's shouting it was hard not to.
He apparated back to the flat with a quick crack. Almost instantly an additional crack filled the room signaling Ron's arrival.
Harry stormed back and forth across the living room. "You!" He kept his head down, not looking at Ron. "You're sending her to her death you know. You're supposed to be her best friend!"
Ron sat idly on the couch, his head down in shame. "We can't be sure it's not a trap Harry. Otherwise we're going to be sending ourselves to our deaths. Then we'd never be able to protect her."
"I'm going Ron. I'm going over there. There is nothing that can stop me." Harry stopped pacing, running his hands through his untamed black hair, making it even more wild. His scar was still softly pulsating.
"Harry mate, we can't do anything yet. Even if we wanted to go we'd have to get a ministry approved Portkey to go across the Atlantic. That could take weeks. That's even if we get the approval."
"I'm going, and I'm going now." He dashed down the hall to his room.
"Harry, what are you doing?" Ron watched him return, holding something in his hands.
Harry opened his hand to reveal a model of a golden snitch. Hermione had sent it to him as a present for Christmas during sixth year.
Ron stood and closed the gap between them eyeing the snitch nervously, "Harry you aren't doing what I think you're doing are you? Do you have any idea what kind of trouble we can get into?"
Harry ignored Ron's comments and took out his wand, touching the tip of it to the snitch itself. "Portus," he muttered. The snitch glowed brightly for a moment.
Harry looked up at Ron with only a look and then activated the portkey.
Harry felt the familiar tug at his navel as he was whisked away to Portland, Oregon. He had to stabilize himself as he landed on the ground. After he reoriented himself, he quickly did a scan of the area and drew his wand on the person standing behind him. He was about to shout a curse when a voice stopped him.
Ron grinned sheepishly, looking from Harry to his wand and back again. "You didn't think I'd let you go see 'Mione all by yourself did you?"
**A/N: Thanks so much for your support you guys, it means a whole lot to us. This chapter is unfortunately the shortest one so far, initially we had more to it but we backed it off and moved it to chapter six (which is completed by the way and our most favorite so far!). We managed to update twice in one week aren't you proud? :p It looks like we'll be updating again sometime early next week. Oh yes if you hadn't noticed there is obviously going to be H/Hr, R/L, and a G/? pairing. We thought we'd mention it even though we doubt you'd mind. As always any reviews, comments, complaints, grunts, and random thoughts are welcome.**