The Weak Fall First

Hey guys and girls! For those of you who have read this before and are wondering why I’ve posted it again, my story was deleted because I stupidly left my Portkey account page open and left the computer running. In comes my brother and thinks it would be funny to delete my story. Hilarious. I was not happy! But never mind, I suppose it gives me a chance to change some things that I wasn’t happy with. So here’s the revised version. Enjoy!

And please review, and tell me what you think because I love hearing from you!

Thanks

Elizabella

-x-x-x-

Prologue

The shrouded figure crossed the courtyard silently, invisibly, and came to a stop in front of the sprawling manor silhouetted against the setting sun. She glanced down and seeing her shadow - the only visible part of her - moved out of the light, becoming one with the shadows of the manor.

A sinister smile played her lips, and she quickly ascended the worn stone steps leading to the great oak front doors. As her feet reached the top stair the hair on the back of her neck stirred and she felt the air around her almost crackle with tension. She immediately knew she was not alone.

Instinctively she turned, dropping into her duelling stance as she spun to face her assailant. She scanned the ground ahead of her.

Empty.

She had expected as much, he always did like to sneak around under that cloak of his, as if it could protect him. She wanted to laugh. Nothing could protect him. Not from her. Predictably, she heard the shout: ‘accio invisibility cloak!’ and resisted the urge to laugh as no cloak flew into his suddenly visible outstretched hand. The handsome young man pulled off his own cloak, and stared around in confusion.

She grinned.

The now visible male swiftly approached the manor and hurried up the steps to where she was standing un-seen. She gracefully side-stepped and waited patiently as he magically opened the door to his house than no one else could enter uninvited. As soon as he entered, she nimbly stepped in after him and the heavy doors creaked shut behind.

Excellent.

She hissed his name into the silence. He spun around, eyes wide, stunning spells and curses flying from his wand. She dropped to the floor and grinned evilly as he continued to look confused, his large green eyes flicking around the room.

A hint of fear in the depths of his eyes.

He barked out ‘accio cloak!’ but again no cloak came at his call.

He was beginning to look afraid, his usually perfect features clouded with anxiety as he took in his seemingly empty surroundings.

She smiled.

She had different means of becoming invisible without the use of a pitiful cloak!

She easily dodged the shower of clumsy spells aimed at the sound of her laughter, and came to a stop behind him. She placed her midnight black wand at the side of his head, and whispered two words in his ear ‘petrificus totalus!’

His wand clattered to the floor.

She twirled to face him, grinning evilly. As she allowed herself to be seen she raised her wand to point right between his eyes. She laughed at the look of shock on his face.

Soon, very soon, she would speak the words that would kill him, but first she wanted him to pay for his mistakes.

Her perfect lips curved into a cruel smile.

His screams as she tortured him would continue well into the night, but eventually she would grow bored.

A flash of green light.

A thud of a body falling to the floor.

Silence.

…the last thing Hector Rookwood saw before he died was her eyes…cunning, haunting, beautiful blue eyes…the eyes he knew so well…the eyes of his sister…

~*~*~*~

Preparations

‘“Ministry Raid at Death Eater Mansion uncovers dead body”

‘In the early hours of this morning the Ministry of Magic conducted a raid at the home of a suspected death eater in Wiltshire. Upon entering the manor the ministry Aurors came across a body hanging by a silver chain from a chandelier in the entrance hall of the 18^th century residence. The body is thought to be that of the manor’s owner, Mr Hector Rookwood, but at the present time this cannot be confirmed due to the body’s current condition. Efforts are being made by St.Mungo’s top healers to identify the body. A spokeswoman from St.Mungo’s said this morning: “we believe that the body is Hector Rookwood, but don’t actually know yet, go away please, we‘re busy”.

‘The supposed body of Rookwood was hung from the chandelier after being burned with some kind of acid until no skin was left, and his features deformed by knife wounds. “This torture was methodical and expertly performed, must of hurt loads. It was not the cause of death though, we reckon he was finished off by Avada Kedavera” this little speech by a Ministry ‘official’ was given to the Daily Prophet this morning.

‘The Ministry are quite sure the mutilated body is Hector Rookwood. He is the son of the infamous Algernon Rookwood, who has recently escaped from Azkaban prison with a group of known death eaters. It is yet unknown whether Rookwood junior was a supporter of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, although a neighbour commented this morning: “dunno bout ‘im bein’ a death eater type, but ‘im and ‘is twin sister are well into the dark arts, whole family is! Up to their eyeballs in it, the lot of ‘em!”

‘The Ministry decline to comment on the reason for the raid on Rookwood’s manor, but it is suspected that Rookwood had in his possession a powerful dark artefact. The ministry was this morning in uproar as it seems the murderer of Hector Rookwood stole this object from a secret room, as the walls of the east wing of the manor were blasted apart, most likely by the dark spells Rookwood had allegedly placed around this room to stop anyone gaining entry. This apparently failed as this mysterious object was stolen, and more besides.

‘The Aurors Department have failed to shed light on the situation, commenting “we can neither confirm or deny that Rookwood has this particular object, or that it was stolen from…”

“Hold on a minute Hermione, so they don’t actually know if he had this whatever-it-was then? They’re just guessing?” Ron looked at her bemusedly, clearly not understanding why there were so many gaps in the report. That makes two of us Hermione thought. She scanned the article again, with Harry looking over her shoulder at it.

“hmmm” His eyes quickly moved down the page, “No mention of what this ‘powerful dark artefact’ is then?”

Hermione stared down at the paper doubtfully. “But you’d think they’d know though, wouldn’t you?”

“Well, maybe they do” came Ron’s voice from by the window. He looked at them in a superior knowing kind of way. such a bloody drama queen Hermione thought, rolling her eyes. Finally, after two minutes of knowing looks and his irritating pacing, she snapped “Well are you going to tell us your theory then or just continue being a prat?”

It was the beginning of August and once again they were at Grimmauld Place, which now belonged to Harry. Currently they were taking refuge in Buckbeak’s room, occasionally tossing the hippogriff dead rats. The reason for being stuck in that smelly, dirty room was to escape the frenzied scrubbing of the rest of the house, led by Mrs Weasley, who had decided to undertake the cleaning as her summer project and had enlisted the help of a very disgrungled Ginny.

Since the middle of July Harry, Ron and Hermione had been in Grimmauld Place, caught up in the desperately needed cleaning of Harry’s newly acquired, and now permanent, home. Never again would he have to go back to the Dursleys’.

“weeellll” said Ron in that annoyingly superior voice, “Maybe the prophet know exactly what this ‘dark artefact’ is. Maybe they know what it does, and maybe they’ve been told be keep quiet. Maybe Fudge is leaning on them again, it’s happened before” he said with a nod in Harry’s direction.

Hermione’s sceptical expression slowly faded. yes, she thought, it has happened before. All last year when the Ministry was denying Voldemort’s return. She frowned. This ‘powerful dark artefact’ would have to be extremely dangerous if Fudge didn’t let the prophet print its name and use.

She glanced at Harry, he seemed to be thinking along the same lines, with that look of concentration on his face that she had come to know so well. Studying him a little closer, she took in his whole appearance. The same messy hair fell onto his face, half hiding the scar that had made him famous. The same vivid green eyes looked out at the world behind those round glasses of his. She frowned slightly. He looked different somehow, sadder maybe. He was still the same Harry he always was, but more defined, more real. She couldn’t help but wonder what was going through him mind, what he was feeling.

Her eyes travelled down his body, taking in his hardened muscles, the contours of his arms, his chest. He had been working out almost none-stop since Sirius died. it must take his mind off the pain she mused. She couldn’t help but think he was preparing himself for something. Battles were inevitable this year though, and he was preparing himself in everyway possible. Hermione knew that none of them could afford to be lazy now, they had to be on their guard at all times, and Harry was right to be prepared. They had already had many sleepless nights studying new spells, potions and defences. Even Ron was happy to learn even the hardest and most complex spells with only a minimal amount of complaints.

“What?” Harry was frowning quizzically at her. She realised she had been staring at him, lost in thought, for well over a minute now. She looked away quickly and, to her horror, blushed slightly. Harry just shrugged and shared a confused look with Ron, who muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “girls”. Hermione opened her mouth to snap at him, but before she could, Harry cut in “You know what? I think Ron might actually be right.” Hermione shot Harry an extremely offended look and he soon realised his mistake. He quickly amended it “ooops! Sorry Hermione, I didn’t mean about the ‘girls’ comment! I was talking about what he said about the prophet, about it being stingy with information”

Ron started looking extremely impressed with himself, and Hermione rolled her eyes at him, not that it had any effect.

“And,” Harry continued, “I think its about time we got some proper answers. About everything.”

Ok, now you’ve lost me Hermione thought. By hers and Ron’s quizzical expressions Harry realised he wasn’t being clear enough.

He grinned at Ron. “your brothers haven’t left any of those new experiments of theirs lying around have they? You know, the spy flies?”

Hermione instantly narrowed her eyes. “Harry Potter! What exactly are you going to do?” but she thought she already knew what was coming. The Order still would not let them attend meetings, and nobody would tell them much, which totally annoyed Harry and Ron, and, if she was honest, her too.

She saw the look on his face and sighed. She wasn’t going to win, her protests would be useless, and Ron would side with Harry on this. She gave in. “Ok, what’s the plan?”

Two days later a meeting of the Order was arranged. Harry and Ron spent the best part of the day before planning. They decided they would hide the spy fly in the meeting room, but soon found there was a problem. The fly might actually fly out of a door or window before the meeting had even started, one of the reasons why Fred and George had given up on them and left them at Grimmauld place. So in the end Ron suggested that they tie the spy fly to a bit of string, then tie the end of it to a chair, so the fly couldn’t fly off.

Harry provided a distraction (“Oops! Sorry Mrs Weasley, I didn’t mean to drop all those dung bombs, honest!”) while Ron slipped into the room where the meeting would take place, and tied the fly to a chair at the back of the room, where it would be least noticeable. Hermione would have no part in any of it, she thoroughly disapproved with the whole thing. The boys wouldn’t listen to her protests and warnings about what would happen if they were caught, so she occupied herself glowering at them and glancing darkly at the listening device that they had placed in Ron’s room.

“Ah, come on Hermione! It isn’t like we’re doing anything wrong!” Ron’s pleading only earned him a deadly glare and more arguments. “Nothing wrong! You are spying on good, respectable people!”

“Oh and Snape too” Ron added smirking. She opened her mouth to correct him, but closed it again and marched off. Oh when will they learn?! she thought there’s no point in me trying to stop them though, although I thought Harry would at least listen!

“What’s she flouncing off for anyway? Honestly mate, I don’t know about you, but I really don’t understand that girl!” Ron threw himself down on his bed and sighed. “I mean, really! You’d think she’d stop bossing us around by now, wouldn’t you? She’s not so bloody innocent herself!”

Harry agreed, after all, hadn’t she actually asked what the plan was? He pushed himself off the chair and walked to the door. “I reckon we should talk to her about this though, or she wont speak to us for days. I’m going to find her.”

A few minutes later Harry walked into Buckbeak’s room, and found Hermione sitting by the wall, throwing rats to the hippogriff. He sat down on the floor next to her, and decided that it was best to wait until she calmed down.

What does he want now? As if just coming in here and sitting next to me is going to make me less angry! She decided to stay silent, if he’s not going to talk first, I’m certainly not!

After a few minutes of irritating silence, she finally snapped “If you carry on with this ridiculous plan of yours Harry, I’ll…I’ll…I’ll tell Mrs. Weasley!”

Harry gaped at her in horror. “No way, you wouldn’t do that” but seeing the look on her face he continued “Ah come on Hermione! It’s not like you’ve never broken any rules!”

Oh why does he have to do that? Grinning like that, so I don’t stay mad, its not fair!

“Broken rules? Me?” she said indignantly, “I never break rules! And stop grinning at me Harry James Potter, it wont make any difference you know! I’m still mad!” she protested weakly.

That just made him laugh. “Hmm… let me see… sneaking around after dark in my cloak? The time turner in our third year? The pollyjuice potion? Breaking Ministry decrees? School rules? Oh and lets not forget blackmailing Rita Skeeta! Nope, you’ve definatly never broken any rules! And anyway, if you hadn’t read that article in the prophet to us, I wouldn’t have thought to spy on the Order would I? And, really, this is my house, isn’t it?! So I think I have a right to know what’s going on in my own living room, don’t you?”

She frowned. Although she didn’t agree with the part about her breaking all those rules (so I bent a few, that’s not the same!), she had to admit he had a point. “Actually, I agree with you. You’d think after everything that’s happened, they’d let you go to those meetings. You’re right, it is your house now, and out of respect for Sirius you’d think they’d let you know what is going on, and let you have your say.” She was surprised to find she actually believed what she just said, the Order really weren’t being at all fair about all this. She glanced at Harry, and saw him lost in thought.

A rush of sympathy flowed through her. “you really miss him don’t you?” she asked softly. Harry sighed and continued to watch unseeing as Buckbeak tore up another rat. Hermione didn’t know what to do for him, she knew how angry he was about Sirius’ death, he blamed himself. Every time Sirius’ name was mentioned, his face would darken and he would promptly exit the room, leaving everyone staring after him with guilt and pity. She knew Harry hated their pity, she knew she would too. She slipped her arm round him, not knowing what else to do. She rested her head on his shoulder, whispering “I’m so sorry Harry”. she didn’t know what she was saying sorry for exactly, but it seemed the right thing to say.

She didn’t know how long they sat there like that, each taking comfort in the other’s presence, but too soon Ron banged on the door, making them both jump, and Buckbeak snorted and tossed his head in irritation. “Hey, Harry, you in there mate? Come on! The meeting’s about to start!”

Harry stood up, reaching down to help Hermione up. He grinned at her “Oh come on, you’re not going to sit in here all day are you? When you could be finding out what’s going on?”

She hesitated for a few seconds, then grabbed his hand.

~*~*~*~

Information gained

Dumbledore strode into the room and the babble of voices fell silent immediately. He looked around the room at them all, smiling politely. The room was slightly fuller than usual; when Fudge announced that Voldemort was indeed back, a steady stream of people had gone to Dumbledore looking to apologise for not believing him, and to help. Many of them were not at the meeting though, as only the most trusted members of the Order were permitted to be there, the risk of spies was too great.

“Thank you all for coming at such short notice.” Dumbledore began “There are a number of matters we need to discuss. The first, and possibly the most important, is Harry Potter.

“As you all know, Sirius Black was murdered two months ago. I’m sure most of you are aware that Sirius was Harry’s godfather. In his will, he clearly stated that this house, and most of his possessions, including a considerable sum of money, are to be left to Harry. But also, before he died he requested that Harry be looked after by Remus Lupin. We have yet to tell Harry this, but, with Harry’s consent, Remus will become Harry’s legal guardian, a task that he is delighted to undertake. Now, the reason I am telling you this is because you will need to know the current state of things regarding Mr. Potter.”

At this, Snape spoke up from the back of the room where he was sitting in the shadows. “As much as we all love to hear about the latest drama in Potter’s tragic life, Professor, may I enquire as to the point in all this?”

A few people frowned at the greasy haired potions master, there was no need to be disrespectful.

“I’m sorry if I have not yet made my point clear Severus,” Dumbledore replied politely, “So now I will proceed to it.

“You all know how much Harry Potter is hated by Voldemort, and his followers. Harry’s life is constantly at risk, and to reduce this risk to Harry, I would like to have four volunteers to be Harry Potter’s guards when he is outside the relative safety of Grimmauld Place and Hogwarts. At the end of this meeting, if any of you wish to volunteer yourselves, I will be most happy to take your names.”

Once again Snape started to speak. “Professor, may I ask -” but he got no further than that before McGonagall cut in, irritated by his lack of respect. “Ah I see you can’t wait until the end of the meeting to offer your services Severus?” A few people chuckled at the look on Snape’s face at the thought of being Harry’s guard.

“Actually Minerva, I was going to ask why it is necessary for Potter to have babysitters when most normal people his age do not need someone to hold their hand? He seems to manage to get into, and out of, trouble perfectly well by himself. Why do we have to waste key members of the Order to protect him? And anyway, he wouldn’t like the idea. He would most likely think in that over-large head of his that it is an insult to his supreme power to suggest he needs babysitting.”

A fierce argument broke out at this comment, until finally Dumbledore was able to restore order. It was decided that Harry was to have two guards at all times when out of school.

“Now that that’s decided, we shall move on to other matters. Kingsley, if you would please continue.”

Kingsley Shacklebolt stood up and moved to the front of the room. “The first thing we must discuss is the murder that happened in Wiltshire two days a go, on the 3^rd. St. Mungo’s have confirmed that the body was Hector Rookwood. Luckily for us, the prophet haven’t discovered that Rookwood was working for us, although they’ve been digging around. At the minute we have no leads on the person who tortured and killed him ,but both the Ministry and the Order have Aurors looking into it. Now, Rookwood’s killer must have known him well enough to know about his secret room, and he must have known what was in it. Fortunately, the daily prophet is keeping quiet about the object that was stolen. Rookwood had in his possession the Staff of Amaror.” at this point an excited babble broke out among the listening witches and wizards. Kinsley cleared his throat and waited for silence before continuing “As some of you may know, this is an extremely powerful object that we need to recover as soon as possible. That was the reason for the ‘raid’ on Rookwood’s manor that night. It was all staged, so as not to alert the death eaters that Hector Rookwood was working for us. Unfortunately, someone else got there first. We don’t know whether this person was working for You-Know-Who or not, although we do know that their powers are considerable, no ordinary wizard could have got into Rookwood’s secret room without being torn apart.”

After this a discussion took place, with people offering suggestions and theories as to what happened, while others asked questions. Snape sat at the back, silently fuming about Potter getting special treatment once again. He was also getting increasingly annoyed at the fly buzzing round his head, it had been there all meeting. He snatched it out the air in irritation and crushed it in his hand.

Up in Ron’s bedroom the three spies grumbled in frustration as their fly was squashed, leaving them with a buzz of static to replace the interesting conversations going on in the meeting room downstairs.

The following evening, Mrs. Weasley called Harry into the kitchen. Walking in, he found Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, Tonks and Bill Weasley waiting for him. He looked at them curiously, they all looked so serious, apart from Dumbledore who’s attention was currently fixed on the bag of mint humbugs in his hand. He looked up as Harry closed the door. “Have a seat Harry, we have some important business to discuss.” He gestured to the table on which a number of official looking papers were scattered. Harry sat down next to Mrs. Weasley who smiled brightly at him and looked to Dumbledore to continue. Dumbledore offered Harry a humbug and basically repeated what was said at the meeting the previous evening about Harry’s safety, but editing out Snape’s comments. “On the table, Harry, are the documents you and Remus will have to sign, that is, if you agree to him becoming your legal guardian.”

Lupin looked slightly apprehensive, as if worried Harry might refuse. Harry couldn’t do that though, he knew it was Sirius’ wish that Remus became his guardian, and anyway, he could think of no one he’d rather have, other than Sirius of course, he thought. He grinned at Remus. “Where do I sign?”

After all the legal stuff was cleared up and the documents sent away with a grand looking owl, Dumbledore asked Tonks and Bill to step forward. He went on to explain the that they had volunteered to be Harry’s guards. Harry grinned. He thought he would be stuck with some strict old wizards that wouldn’t let him do anything and whom he did not know. Instead he got two people who he knew and trusted, and were his friends. He frowned “but professor, how will they know if I leave the school?”

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled. “may I also introduce to you Hogwarts new Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers?” he said, gesturing again to Tonks and Bill. Harry was stunned. “Two teachers sir?”

Mrs. Weasley looked ready to burst with pride. “Oh isn’t is super! Bill, a teacher at Hogwarts! I can’t believe it!” She sniffed and rummaged around for a tissue. Bill rolled his eyes at her and became serious again. “But you can’t tell anyone thought Harry, not even Ron and Hermione.”

Harry looked like he was about to protest, so Lupin cut in “I know its hard Harry, but we don’t want anyone knowing until school starts. Its for Bill and Tonks’ safety. You see, there is a lot of speculation as to who the new Defence Against the Dark professor will be this year, and it is critical that you have competent teachers this year. By telling people that Bill and Tonks are going to teach you, we are risking another situation like the one in your fourth year, having an impostor in place of the real teachers. We just can’t risk that.” Remus said sternly.

Harry nodded slowly, then asked the question that had been bothering him. “But I thought you were a curse breaker?” He said to Bill, then turned to Tonks. “and you’re an Auror! How can you do both?”

“Well, I quit my job at Gringotts when I was asked to teach at Hogwarts.” Bill supplied. Harry looked at Tonks., who shrugged and simply said “I guess I’ve always wanted to teach.” she stood up to leave then turned back as she reached the door, “Oh, almost forgot! Next week would you, Ron and Hermione like to go to Diagon Ally? To get your school stuff and do some shopping?” Harry grinned. Excellent, we could find out some information on the staff of Amaror while we’re there!

“Love to” he said.

~*~*~*~

A new evil

The furious tinkle of violently broken glass echoed through the empty rooms, muffled slightly by the considerable amount of dust that had built up through years of neglect.

She was angry. Very angry.

No, more than that. She was livid.

She stalked out of her study and strode into the main hall of the neglected mansion. Kicking the door closed behind her, staff in hand, she shouted at the nervous men in front of her “Bring me the wand-maker now!”

Two of the terrified men scurried to get the prisoner, while the others got out of her way. Fast.

One wasn’t fast enough.

“Rictusempra!” she screamed, pointing her wand at him. The jet of silver light hit him square in the back and sent him smashing through the window.

She paused, listening to his screams as he continued to fall down the side of the rocky cliff, finally ceasing as he hit the ground sixty feet below.

Presently, the two men came back into the hall, dragging the wand-maker between them. They dumped him on a chair in the middle of the room and quickly exited.

Slowly, she approached him, her measured footsteps echoing on the tiled floor. She mastered her temper, took control of her anger.

She looked down at the broken man in front of her and smiled sweetly at him. “Now, Mr Ollivander, I’m sure you remember me, don’t you? Eleven years isn’t that long is it now?”

He nodded warily at her and managed to whisper “Twelve and a quarter inches…ebony…dragon heartstring…yes, I remember.”

She clapped her hands together. “Oooh very good wand-maker! I’m almost impressed! Now, what would really impress me is if you told me how to use this.” she waved the staff in front of his nose. “I know you know how, after all, your great-great-great-grandmother made it, didn’t she Mr. Ollivander? So I presume you know how to work it hmm?”

He glanced at the staff in her hand before looking back up into her clear blue eyes. “I…I don’t know…what it is…” he croaked.

“do not lie to me wand-maker!” she hissed, her face now only inches from his own. “This, as you are well aware, is the Staff of Amaror! Now, Amaror would have told her son how to use it wouldn’t she? Who would have then told his son…and so on until we get to you Mr. Ollivander. Now, how does it work?”

He glanced at the staff again and chuckled hoarsely. “…so beautiful…rosewood, her favourite…” then he frowned, seeming to remember where he was “I’d never….no…not ever!…I wont say…I wont…”

She lost her patience and started to walk away.

Then she snapped.

Spinning round to face him, she brought the staff up through the air and it connected with the side of his face with a dull thud. He was knocked off the chair and lay sprawled on the ground.

“now, Mr. Ollivander, I’m not a very patient lady” at this he snorted and earned a kick in the ribs for his troubles. “I don’t care how much that hurt” she continued softly “because it is insignificant compared to what I am going to do to you next. I may not be able to command the power of Amaror, I can’t understand how to get the damn staff to work, yet, but I can still hit you with the bloody thing though, can’t I?” she brought down into his stomach. “you will speak to me wand-maker, or you’ll suffer! I’m very skilled at the art of torture you know.” she added conversationally. He continued to say nothing so she squatted down next to him and whispered softly in his ear.

“Tell me, Mr. Ollivander, how are you going to continue making your precious wands if you don’t have any fingers?”

~*~*~*~

Legendary Artifacts And Their Uses

The next week, Harry, Ron and Hermione took the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron, accompanied by Tonks and Bill Weasley. Hermione was carrying a bag on her back, in which Harry’s invisibility cloak was concealed. Tonks and Bill knew nothing about this, as Hermione had told them she needed the bag to put all her extra books in.

Getting information about the Staff of Amaror was going to be a problem. They had discussed what they were going to do the night before. In the end, Hermione offered to slip away under the cloak to Knockturn Alley , and look around to see if she could find any books that might help. Harry didn’t like the idea of Hermione going into Knockturn Alley, but there was no other way. Harry couldn’t go himself because Tonks and Bill would surely notice if Harry disappeared, as they were meant to stay with him all the time. And Mrs. Weasley made Bill promise to not let Ron out of his sight. Due to the disappearance of the wand-maker, Mr. Ollivander, the previous week, everyone in the Order had been jumpy and hardly anyone got any sleep as the search for the man continued. Hermione reasoned that Tonks would let her go off alone if she said she was just going to pick up a book she ordered and do some girly shopping with a friend, and would be back within half an hour. Tonks had agreed to this, so the task fell upon Hermione to find out whatever she could bout the Staff of Amaror in the time she was given. Although she was trying very hard not to show it, she was considerably nervous about even entering Knockturn Alley, let alone buying anything from there.

They arrived in Diagon Alley at mid-morning, and proceeded to get all the things on their school lists. As they passed Ollivander’s wand shop they got caught up in a crowd of people that seemed to all want to enter the shop. Harry frowned and asked Bill what was going on. “They’ll have a big problem this year” said Bill quietly “You see, they reckon Mr. Ollivander was kidnapped, as they found signs of a struggle inside his flat above the shop. Also, when the Aurors went into the shop, they found all the wands piled up in the middle of the floor, all snapped and burned. Hundreds of them.”

“But that doesn’t explain why all these people are here though” Ron said. Bill just sighed. “Use your head Ron. Over one hundred witches and wizards are starting Hogwarts this September. And what’s the first thing on their list of school supplies? A wand!”

Hermione looked at him, her eyes wide “So the first years won’t have wands?”

“Not quite right Hermione, there are other wand shops, but not in England, and not nearly so good. So the new students are going to have to travel a long way to get their wands! And Ollivander’s is meant to be the best in the world” Tonks supplied. “So, of course, it’s essential to find Mr. Ollivander as soon as possible. At the minute, we have no idea where he is.” What she didn’t add was that the Order had their suspicions that Mr. Ollivander’s disappearance was connected to Rookwood’s murder, and the Staff of Amaror going missing.

Soon after this, Hermione left them, saying she was going to pick up some books. She walked through the crowds to the side of Gringotts bank, and quickly pulled out the invisibility cloak, and after checking that no-one was looking, she disappeared under it, and strode off into Knockturn Alley. She forced herself to make her heart beat slower, and to take time to look into each shop window carefully to search for anything that might be useful. She stopped outside Borgin and Burkes, which looked promising, and, hesitating only a second or two, pushed open the door and went inside.

She found herself alone in a shop that had all sorts of disgusting but interesting things in it. Hermione had to stop herself reaching out to touch some of the more abstract looking items, and made her way to the back of the shop, where a number of dusty books were stacked onto a rickety shelf. She looked at the titles of the books, and finally selected a promising looking book, a dusty volume with the title ‘Legendary Artifacts And Their Uses’. She ran a finger down the contents page, and found what she was looking for. Aware that her half-hour was nearly up, she pulled off the cloak and rang a bell that was on the grimy counter by the till. Two minutes later, a stooping, greasy haired man came into the shop behind the till and looked at her inquiringly. “Err, I err, I want to buy this book” Hermione said nervously, putting the book onto the counter. The shop’s owner looked at her with distaste, as if he knew exactly who she was, and didn’t like her at all. Finally, he asked her for five galleons, which was far to much, but Hermione was too scared to argue, and handed over the money wordlessly, tugging nervously at her hair. She put the book in her bag, and practically ran out the shop, pulling on Harry’s cloak as she went. Five minutes later, she appeared red faced and out of breath next to a startled Ron and nodded at Harry’s questioning glance. “Oh Hermione! Your back. Just in time for lunch, come on.” Tonks said as she spotted her and led the way over to a small café opposite Flourish and Blotts.

After a quick lunch, the five of them headed back to the Leaky Cauldron, having bought everything they needed, and took the Knight Bus back to Grimmauld Place. Once back Harry, Ron and Hermione went up to Ron’s room and got out ‘Legendary Artifacts And Their Uses’ and opened it to the page titled ‘The Staff of Amaror’ and read the passage.

‘The Staff of Amaror’s existence is disputed frequently by the wizarding community, with the majority believing in the Staff’s existence, but it’s powers to be greatly exaggerated. It is said that the Staff has the power to block all spells/hexes/jinxes/curses aimed at the Staff’s holder, even the killing curse, and also gives the holder the power to use all spells/hexes/jinxes/curses without needing a wand, or needing to speak any incantations out loud, just thinking the words is sufficient. This makes the Staff one of the most powerful objects known to the wizarding world, as it is said to be impossible to damage.

It was created in 1738 by Amaror Ollivander, a witch of considerable powers, devoted to her family’s tradition of making magical objects, mainly wands. She is said to have accidentally made the Staff of Amaror when experimenting with rosewood and the effects various spells have on the wood. In took her ten years after completing the Staff to realise its powers, although the true extent of the Staff’s abilities is not known.

The Staff is said to be almost six foot tall, made of rosewood, with moving runes and sigils engraved into it. It is topped with a large sapphire that constantly glows while the staff is activated. The Staff disappeared shortly after Amaror died, but reappeared again in 1784 in the possession of Camilla Brown, who was, at the time, working for the Ministry of Magic. Unfortunately, the Staff was not activated, and no-one knows how to make it work, as Amaror Ollivander never told anyone other than her son how to use the Staff.

Its current whereabouts is not known. Although it has had various owners in the past, it has apparently disappeared in the last 100 years, which adds to the frequent speculation about its existence and its powers.

“Well, now we know why the Order wants it, and Voldemort too” said Harry, as usual ignoring Ron’s wince. He closed the book and put it back in Hermione’s bag. She got it back out again though, and read through it again. “So you think it was Voldemort - oh stop being stupid Ron! - who killed Hector Rookwood and stole the Staff?” she asked, frowning. Harry sighed “I think so, who else could it have been? Maybe he didn’t steal it himself, but I think he defiantly got someone to do it for him.”

“So, do you think You-Know-Who has got Mr. Ollivander then? Reckon he knows how to use it yet?” Ron said , then added “Actually, if he knew how to use it, we’d probably know by now, wouldn’t we? He’d have attacked someone with it or something.”

“Do you think I could possibly borrow that fascinating book of yours Miss Granger?” came a voice from by the door, and all three of them jumped and turned quickly to find Dumbledore standing in the doorway. “I don’t mean to seem strict, but that book you’ve acquired contains a lot of information that people of your age would find disturbing. Also, certain pages are cursed with dark magic to harm the reader unless they de-activate the spells first. I trust you have only read that one page?” he said, moving across the room and picked up the book. Hermione blushed, looking extremely ashamed at being caught with an object that they clearly should not have even touched. Dumbledore went on “Well, never mind, we were actually hoping to get this book ourselves you know, so really you’ve saved us the trouble of finding it.” he stopped by the door, book in hand, then turned back to them “Oh I almost forgot! Your O.W.L.s results have arrived. They’re on the kitchen table.”

News

Harry and Ron looked at each other, panic sparking in their eyes. Hermione squealed excitedly and clapped her hands. “Oooh I wondered when they’d come! Katey Bell told me she got hers in July, but I suppose ours are late because of the whole Voldemort thing. I was actually rather worried, weren’t you? Oh this is great! Come on you two, lets - what?” Hermione stopped babbling as she notices the looks of amazement on their faces. Harry spoke first “This ‘whole Voldemort thing’?” he said with amusement. She just rolled her eyes “Well, you know what I mean. OWLs are so important! The most important thing in our whole lives so far! Oh come on!” and she hurried out of the room, leaving two amazed boys behind her. “Mental that one. Totally mental!”

Ron got up slowly and looked around at Harry “Well mate, I guess we should get this over with. I mean, I can’t have done worse than the twins right? They only got six each. I might get eight, or nine, I mean, its not the end of the world right? If I fail them all I mean.” They walked down to the kitchen very slowly, both looking as if they’d rather be anywhere else other than there. As they reached the kitchen door, a shriek came from within the room, and Hermione burst through the door, running right into a very shocked Harry. She thrust a sheet of parchment under his nose, and he grabbed it and, with Ron looking over his shoulder, read:

Miss Granger,

Included is your results from your fifth year OWL testing, and a list of options for your sixth year studies. The lowest OWL score this year was four OWLs (“Oh that’s got to be mine” Ron moaned), the highest is seventeen OWLs, and the average score is ten OWLs.

We are delighted to inform you that you have received a total of seventeen OWLs, which is the highest amount in the last fifty years.

Congratulations on your achievement,

M.S. Marshbanks

Hermione Granger

Results of the written tests of the OWL examinations:

E, Ancient Runes

O, Arithmancy

E, Astronomy

O, Charms

O, Defence against Dark Arts

O, Herbology

E, History of Magic

O, Muggle Studies

O, Potions

O, Transfiguration

Results of the practical tests of the OWL examinations:

A, Astronomy

O, Charms

O, Defence against Dark Arts

E, Herbology

O, Potions

O, Transfiguration

E, Care of Magical Creatures

These results give a total of 17 OWLs.

Harry picked up his own letter shortly after he finished congratulating Hermione and found out that, despite the gloomy voice in his head that said that he had failed them all, he had done surprisingly well. Nothing like Hermione’s record number, but a respectable amount.

Harry Potter

Results of his written OWLs:

A, Astronomy

E, Charms

O, Defence against Dark Arts

A, Herbology

D, History of Magic

O, Potions

E, Transfiguration

A, Divination

Results of the practical OWLs:

P, Astronomy

E, Charms

O, Defence against Dark Arts

A, Herbology

O, Potions

E, Transfiguration

E, Care of Magical Creatures

P, Divination

These results give a total of 13 OWLs.

“Ooh well done Harry! that’s really really good! Wow! You did rally well in potions didn’t you? Bet Snape’s going to be thrilled.” Hermione said after reading Harry’s results. Harry looked at Ron, who was staring at his own sheet with his mouth open. Harry was relieved that he looked slightly less green than before. “Err, what did you get Ron?” he asked. “I.. I…wow…I got ten! that’s really good right? Well, its better than the twins anyway, and it’s the average. So I did ok didn’t I?”

Hermione and Harry looked at each other, defiantly not expecting this reaction. Hermione thought Ron would be really upset and mad when he got less that Harry. Not that I thought he would get less than Harry of course! She thought guiltily. “That’s great Ron! Your mum will be really pleased!”

~*~*~*~

The next day, an Order meeting was held. To their surprise, Harry, Ron and Hermione were asked to attend. Hermione wondered what was going on, they hadn’t been allowed to go to any previous meetings, and nothing had changed, so why were they allowed now? She told Harry this, but he just shrugged and said that its better than sitting upstairs, not knowing what’s going on. She had to agree.

They all went into the meeting room, and sat at by the wall, near the front. They attracted a few curious glances as seats filled up around them, but no-one said anything, until Snape walked in. He froze when he saw them, his lips curled into his usual sneer, eyes locked on Harry’s. Hermione got the feeling they were having some sort of private battle, their hate for each other had not lessened, as she hoped, as Harry had continued with the Occlumency lessons all through the summer, but if anything their hatred seems only to increase, if it were possible. Finally, Snape stalked to his usual seat at the back, and sat there sulking, glaring at anyone who looked his way.

Dumbledore strode into the room, and silence fell. Hermione noticed that the usual twinkle had gone from his eyes, and he was looking very grave. Everyone’s attention was fixed on him. He looked around at them all, his eyes resting on the three teenagers for the longest time. Finally he spoke. “I have called you all here today because there is a very serious matter I wish to discuss with you all.

‘Some of you may be wondering why Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger are present. This is because what I have to say concerns them more than most of you..” There were some surprised murmurings following this, and Hermione exchanged glances with Ron and Harry.

Dumbledore continued “Mr Ollivander has been found, and is recovering at St. Mungo’s from his ordeal. This may come as a surprise to you, as it has not been reported in the daily prophet. they have been asked not to report the events of last night as it would create a panic across the wizarding community if known.

‘A team of Aurors from the Ministry tracked down Mr Ollivander to an old mansion in the north of England, not far from Hogwarts. They entered the mansion after undoing a number of particularly nasty spells to keep unwanted visitors out, loosing two Aurors in the process. When they entered the mansion they found it empty, other than the complex trapping spells placed around the main hall on the second floor. When they managed to gain access to the hall, their number was down from the original twenty to only three. These three Aurors went into the hall, and found it almost empty, with only two people inside. One was Mr Ollivander, near dead, and the other was his captor, a woman. The Aurors have told us nothing other than her name, as they are currently in no state to be telling anyone anything. St Mungo’s healers are currently trying to break the vicious spells placed upon them; if they try to speak about what happened within the hall they suffer severe pain. Mr Ollivander is the same, but he did manage to tell us something. His captor’s name is Azalea Rookwood, Hector Rookwood’s sister. I’m sure a few of you may remember her from Hogwarts. She has got the Staff of Amaror, and, it seems she knows how to use it.”

~*~*~*~

The previous night….

She looked down on the Aurors as they struggled with her spells outside the mansion. A cruel smile was on her perfect lips and her blue eyes sparkled with malicious amusement as she watched the second Auror go down under the pressure of those simple spells. She has placed them there even before she knew how the Staff worked. They were weak, she was weak. But now she would grow strong. Now the sapphire atop the Staff, her Staff, glowed a brilliant blue. But she still couldn’t do a lot with it though, there was a lot more to find out.

She turned back to the man on the floor. She sighed. Her patience was fast running out. It had taken her the best part of a week to find out how to activate the Staff. She needed to know how to use it properly, and fast. Those Aurors wouldn’t dawdle to long outside, soon they would find a way inside. She needed to be prepared.

She walked over to him, and aimed a kick at his already broken ribs. He groaned in pain. She hauled him to his feet by his hair and held him up by a trickle of power from the Staff. She slowly circled him, frowning. How to get what she wanted? She had already broken all his fingers, cracked his ribs and broken his legs. All very slowly and carefully, making sure he felt every second of it. And still he would not tell her anything.

In the end she resorted to, in her opinion, the dullest form of torture, the cruciatus curse.

For a whole week that continued until he told her the words to speak to activate the Staff.

But that was hours a go. She had left him alone for the past few hours, but now she wanted answers. She continued to pace, frowning. She could hear them now, running through the mansion’s empty rooms. They were probably wondering where everyone was. She had made all her men dissaperate over an hour a go, when the Aurors first appeared. She didn’t want any of her men to die just yet.

She hit the wand-maker once again, and whispered in his ear “You’ve told me how to activate it, what is there to lose in telling me how to use it? I’ll find out anyway. But if you tell me, maybe I wont kill you. I might even let you go. So c’mon, how does this thing work?” he was still grimacing in pain, and she realised that with four broken ribs he probably couldn’t speak. She flicked her wand and healed him. Well, just the ribs. Broken legs wouldn’t stop him from talking.

“Ok, ok. I’ll tell you” he whimpered, breathing in deeply, and, for the first time in days, without too much pain. “You’ve activated it, but to use it fully you need to use a great deal of power. You need to sacrifice someone pure of heart and drain his blood into the sapphire.”

Silence followed this, interrupted only by the various screams of the Aurors outside the room.

She frowned. “Why did you tell me this wand-maker?” she said quietly, dangerously. He chuckled softly “Because you’re never going to find anyone that good and pure. Someone like you would never even be able to recognise how good hearted he really is. And he‘s too well protected, you‘d never get near him!” she waved her wand and pain came crashing down on him again. “Oops, I think that’s all of your ribs broken now.” she smirked. He had unintentionally told her who it was she needed to find.

Suddenly the doors were blasted open, and the remaining Aurors came in, their wands trained on her. She smiled at them. Luckily for them, she was in a very good mood. She would spare them, send them back as a message to Dumbledore that she was not to be messed with.

Attack on the Hogwarts Express

Hermione was up at dawn and tingling with excitement. Today they were going back to Hogwarts, and she couldn’t wait. She could see how some people, like Ron and probably Harry, thought that it was quite odd that she loved school so much, but if they bothered to ask her why, she would have answered that school is the most exciting thing in her life. After all, she came from a muggle background, without magic, without wizards and without friends. That’s what she would have told them, if anybody asked. She stood in front of the mirror, brush in hand, scowling at her reflection. “Oh why couldn’t you be born with normal hair?” she asked her reflection. “Because then you wouldn’t be you” came a reply from the doorway. Hermione jumped and dropped the brush. She turned to find Harry leaning against the door, arms folded, grinning at her, green eyes sparkling. “Just how long have you been stood there Harry Potter?” she said indignantly. She had just realised that she was still wearing only her night shirt, which was not something she wanted to be seen in first thing in the morning, especially by Harry! She quickly pulled on her dressing gown and did it up tightly. He just stood there, grinning even more at how flustered she was. “Well, I just came to see if you were awake. You want breakfast? I don’t think there is anyone else up yet, its only six o’clock you know.” he said, and moved out the room, gesturing for her to follow. She frowned. There was something odd about this. Why was Harry up, and dressed, so early in the morning? He shouldn’t be up for another three hours on the first day of school, this wasn’t normal, she was sure of that. She went down the stairs and found him already in the kitchen, getting out the cornflakes.

When they were sitting down, Hermione finally had to ask. “Um, Harry, is err is everything ok?” She thought she noticed his cheeks coloured slightly. Harry Potter? Blushing? What’s going on? “Um…Harry?” He continued to look down into his cereal before taking a deep breath and glancing up at her. The intensity of his gaze held her eyes, she couldn’t look away from those brilliant green eyes. Finally he looked back down. “You see…the thing is…well…I…I just” He trailed off, then seemed to pull himself together. “Well, what I want to tell you is that…is that I couldn’t have got through everything without you…so, err, thanks.” He babbled in a rush and turned bright red. Hermione just sat there, mouth open. Did he just say what I think he just said? Harry Potter… saying this? To me? “What…what do you mean?” she asked nervously, not daring to look up at him. She felt his eyes on her as she concentrated on un-picking a loose thread on her dressing gown. “Hermione, I think you’re great. I mean, I really like you, and I just can’t imagine getting through everything that’s happened to me without you by my side. You see, I, well, I wouldn’t be here without you would I? And I’ve finally realised just what you mean to me.” She looked up at him, still not believing it. Did he just say what she thought he just said? She had liked him for ages, of course, but didn’t say anything, didn’t even notice it herself until now. She realised she’d been staring at him now for awhile, and quickly looked away. He spoke again “Your such a great friend Hermione, a really great girl.” he got up and left, and she groaned. how stupid am I? she thought to herself. “Your such a great friend Hermione, a really great girl“… how could I think he meant more than that? she sighed. She was so glad she hadn’t told him how much she liked him, he would probably have run a mile.

The journey to Kings Cross was painful. The silence in the taxi was so loud Hermione just wanted to scream, anything to break the tension in the air. Hermione was quiet and fidgety, still mortified about what she’d nearly said to Harry that morning. Harry seemed to realise something was wrong and kept looking like he was about to say something but then thought better of it. Ron, as usual, was oblivious to everything and chattered on quite happily about quidditch with Ginny.

When they reached the station they found themselves enclosed by Order members. Eight witches and wizards escorted Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny to platform 9 ¾ , all with their right hands in the pockets of their muggle disguises, gripping their wands, ready for any trouble. Hermione thought that the Order wizards were only drawing more attention to them, they attracted a lot of curious glances when they got on the platform. In fact, with the eight stern looking wizards surrounding them, none of their fellow students dared approach them, instead they parted to let them onto the train. Hermione followed Harry and Ron into a compartment they managed to get all to themselves, which was probably due to Tonks and Bill still accompanying them. The rest of their escort waited on the platform, ready to dissaperate as soon as the train left the station.

Suddenly, the whole train started to shake as a deafening bang echoed across the platform. Hermione looked out the window to see that masked wizards had appeared, spread among the various parents and children still on the platform. Hermione gasped as she saw numerous flashes of green light and people crumple and fall to the floor. People started to scream and dissaperate, although those with young children were stuck, and could do nothing other than run.

Tonks and Bill stood up and went to the door, then Tonks turned back, apparently unsure of what to do. Hermione could see her problem, she was stuck between wanting to help all those people on the platform, and her duty of guarding Harry. In the end she was saved the decision by the train beginning to move, as the clock had just struck eleven. A woman came forward from the crowd, blasting people out the way as her strode towards the train. She waved her wand and all the doors of the train sprang open, and her and the masked wizards jumped on, just as the train pulled away from the platform.

Harry sprang to his feet, wand in hand, followed by Ron and Hermione. Bill appeared in the doorway “They’re going in all the compartments, fighting with the students! We’ve got to do something!” Tonks looked back at the three of them before saying “We’ve got to get you off the train, come on, we’ll need to reach the driver before they do!” But just then, the lights went out, and they were plunged into semi-darkness, as only the compartments had windows, the corridor was dark. Shouting and screams came from in front and behind, and a jet of red light brushed Bill’s cheek as a stunning spell shot past him.

Soon a full scale fight broke out, as the masked men didn’t expect the students to fight back, but the sixth and seventh years did so, and with more skill and determination than the intruders expected. Although they put up a brave fight, they were still just children, against at least twenty skilled dark wizards.

Bill and Tonks ran into the corridor straight away to join in, leaving Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny alone in the compartment. “Why haven’t Aurors got here yet?” Ginny said, on the verge of panic. Hermione thought about this, and the answer suddenly came to her. “Oh my god! We need to stop the train!” the others looked at her so she hurriedly continued, the sounds of duelling getting closer every second. “You can’t apperate to a moving object! That’s why they’re not here! We need to get to the driver! See if we can somehow stop the train” The others looked at her, then Harry took charge. “Ok, Hermione’s right. Me and Ron will go, you girls stay here.” At this Hermione and Ginny broke into furious protests. Harry is always trying to be the bloody hero! Protecting those less able than him! Or so he thinks! She suddenly had an idea. She didn’t want to lie to them, but it was the only way Harry would let her go. She sighed “Ok, ok! We’ll stay here, but if the train doesn’t stop in ten minutes, we’re coming after you” Harry opened his mouth to argue, but then just shrugged and left, Ron following behind. Hermione waited a minute, then turned to Ginny. “Ok, u ready Gin?” Ginny nodded, looking determined.

They ran out into the corridor and dodged spells aimed their way. Soon, Hermione lost Ginny in the chaos and found herself fighting alone, sending random spells at anything that moved her way. She was about half way down the long corridor when she felt the train slow down. Suddenly something knocked into her and she half fell, leaning against the wall for support. The object that hit her got up from the floor, and she recognised the witch who stood before her. Young, tall, unbelievably beautiful. It was Azalea Rookwood. Hermione swallowed and backed away slowly, wand gripped tightly in her hand. Azalea looked straight at her and smiled cruelly, tossing her long honey coloured hair back over her shoulder. “Hermione Granger, isn’t it?” she said, walking slowly towards the frightened girl. “How…how did you know?” Hermione squeaked, terrified. Azalea’s smile grew wider. “You may not remember, but I was in my final year at Hogwarts when you were in your first” she surprised Hermione by saying. “What? You don’t remember? Oh I’m only twenty two you know! Surprising isn’t it? That I have so much power, while being still young.” she looked closely at Hermione. “Your Harry Potter’s girlfriend aren’t you? The one mentioned in the prophet last year?” she chuckled softly, an idea forming in her mind. “Well Miss Granger, I think you and I should have a talk sometime, don’t you? You have power you know, yes, a lot of power. I can sense it, you are just like I was at your age. And so good and kind… I bet you’ve never hurt anyone have you? We really need to talk… I’ll be in touch” and with that she disappeared in a flash of white light, just as Aurors appeared on the train. Hermione swayed on her feet, and the world went black.

This is quite a short chapter guys, but I had to re-write it and I didn’t have very long to do it, I gotta rush off now ya see… thanks for your reviews, mucho appreciated!

Elizabella

Aftermath

Hermione woke up feeling dazed and groggy. It took her a full five minutes to collect her thoughts and realise where she was. She groaned as she recognised the clean white walls and polished floor that belonged to the Hospital Wing. Great she thought, first day back and I’m already here! She sat up and looked around. The room was full of students, all of the beds were occupied. She gasped as she looked to her left to see Harry laying unconscious on the bed next to hers, a nasty gash on his right cheek, and sweat pouring down his face. Hermione rose and went to him, frantically looking around for Madame Pomfrey. Finally the healer came hurrying over and took Harry’s temperature before sighing and muttering “Still no change” to herself, and poured a vast quantity of foul smelling green potion down his throat. “What happened?” Hermione asked, anxiously peering at the heeler for reassurance. Madame Pomfrey sighed as she looked around the room at all the students, all suffering from various magical problems. She looked back at Hermione. “Well, you got hit in the back by a stunning spell my dear, you were quite lucky really. Mr Potter, on the other hand, jumped in front of a particularly nasty Feverous Curse, aimed at young Mr Weasley.” She bustled off to deal with other patients, muttering away to herself “…always getting into trouble, that boy…”

The next few days were spent trying to get Hogwarts back to normal. Lessons had been cancelled for now, in light of the hundreds of students unable to attend due to injuries. Those who were out of the Hospital Wing were grave and silent. Nearly thirty students had died in the attack on the train. No-one felt like talking much. Hermione and Ron spent much of their time with Madame Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing, helping whenever they could. Ginny and Harry were among those who had not yet regained consciousness, and many hours were spent sitting by their sides, and in the library, looking up various spells and potions that might help them recover.

Bill had left the Hospital Wing a few days after the attack, but Tonks was yet to recover. She was awake, but had been hit with a mixture of hexes, and no-one quite knew what was wrong with her, or how to cure her.

The attack had, of course, appeared in the Daily Prophet, who claimed that Voldemort was not directly behind the event. The article said that Azalea Rookwood was the ring leader, and it was still not known whether she had links with Voldemort or not, as the masked men with her did not have the Dark Mark on their left arm, it was found out when questioning those who had been caught. Only four out of the twenty-something masked wizards had been caught during the attack, and two of them had already managed to escape Ministry captivity, adding to the panicked rumours that they and their leader, Azalea, possessed dark powers of frightening intensity, and causing the name of Azalea Rookwood to be spoken with almost as much fear as that of Voldemort himself.

Hermione herself was even more terrified than the rest of the wizarding world. She kept thinking back to what Azalea said to her on the Hogwarts Express. She said she would be in touch. What did she mean by that? Would she come to Hogwarts? Write a letter? Hermione couldn’t help but replay the conversation over and over again in her head. hadn’t Azalea said something about Hermione never hurting anyone? And being ‘so good and kind’…what did that mean? and why did she care? And hadn’t she said that Hermione was as powerful as Azalea herself was at that age? Could it be true? Was it possible that Hermione was that strong? The power Azalea commanded was enormous, it seemed that if she wanted to change the shape of the earth, the very mountains would move at her command. And then there was the question of the Staff. She didn’t have it with her on the train, so did that mean she didn’t know how to use it? Or just couldn’t? And what would happen when she did? And, Hermione thought, what did Azalea Rookwood want with her?

Her musings were interrupted by Ron bursting through the portrait hole and, once he spotted her, rushed over and collapsed into the chair next to hers, saying in a rush “Its Harry! He’s woken up Hermione!” Hermione ran out the room, leaving Ron behind to catch his breath. She rushed down to the Hospital Wing, wanting so much to see Harry awake again. She had already decided to tell him how she felt about him, as soon as the opportunity arose. When she entered the room she noticed that it was now nearly empty, it being two whole weeks since the journey to school. Only a few beds were occupied. Tonks had left the day before, and was now back to her normal self, but still randomly squeaking shrilly every other sentence. Ginny too, had woken up a few days a go, and was back in her own dormitory, fully recovered.

Hermione stepped round the curtain that separated Harry’s bed from the rest of the room, and smiled as she saw that he was sitting up, reading a get well letter from one of his many well-wishers who had bombarded him with letters and cards since they heard about his prolonged stay in the Hospital Wing. He looked up as she sat down by his bed, and smiled. “How are you feeling?” she asked softly. “From one of your many fans?” she asked, gesturing to the letter. “Yeah” Harry grinned “I’ve got loads of these things, and cards and stuff. I’m fine thanks. What’s been happening in school? Have I missed much?” She smiled and began to tell him all about the last two weeks, glad that they no longer felt so uncomfortable around each other, and things were back to normal. As for telling him how she felt…well, what was the point? it would only ruin things she thought, and decided it was best left unsaid.

Recovery

It was the end of September before things were back to normal at Hogwarts. A memorial service was held for the students who died in the attack on the Hogwarts Express, and the Daily Prophet began writing articles blaming the Ministry for poor defence and not taking the threat of dark wizards seriously enough. Much of the wizarding world read the prophet and soon the Ministry was bombarded with angry letters and howlers demanding the resignation of Cornelius Fudge at Minister for Magic. The pressure was mounting at the Ministry to do something drastic to placate the angry public. Rumours began to spread that a new Minister would son be elected.

Meanwhile, in Hogwarts the new school year belatedly began. A start of term feast was held on the first of October. The Great Hall seemed a lot emptier with students missing from every table, though significantly less from Slytherin than the others. The enchanted ceiling seemed to match the mood of the students beneath it. It was currently mirroring the dull grey of the evening sky, complete with rain falling from the pretend clouds and vanishing just before it reached the floating candles above the four house tables below.

“I feel like I haven’t eaten all week!” Ron moaned, massaging his loudly grumbling stomach and staring hopefully at his plate. “You know” he added dully “I’m so hungry I could eat a whole - oww!” he scowled at Hermione who had just elbowed his sharply in the ribs. “Sssh Ron! Dumbledore’s about to speak!” she nodded towards the head table where Dumbledore had just got to his feet.

The noise in the hall died down and the Headmaster smiled politely at the students. “The start of another year” he began, the usual twinkle fading from his eyes behind those half moon glasses, “and the end of thirty three lives of good people, people who you knew and loved. But we must put this behind us and look to the future rather than dwell on the past. We will all have a difficult year ahead of us, both academically and otherwise. As we have lost the first month of the term I’m sure you’ll all be delighted to know that you will have to work extra hard to catch up on the time lost.” A collective groan came from the students at this comment and Dumbledore smiled. “yes, I thought you’d be happy to here this! Now for other notices; the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds to all students, and this year I regret to inform you that a curfew has been placed on all students. All pupils must be inside the castle by 7pm every night, which is when all the doors into the school will be locked until 6am the next morning. So please be prompt to get inside, as I’m sure you wouldn’t like to spent an uncomfortable night outside in the cold. All students are to be back in their common rooms by 9pm, and ghosts and Mr filch will be patrolling the corridors to enforce this regulation. I’m afraid that these new additions to the school rules are an unfortunate but necessary precaution and we will be very strict if anyone is found breaking these rules as they are here for your safety. One more thing before we begin our feast; would all 6^th year students stay behind after the feast to sign up for their four subjects they will be taking at N.E.W.T kevel for the next two years. Thank you. Tuck in!”

At his last words food magically appeared on the plates on the tables and the smell of many types of hot food drifted into the air. With a particularly loud rumble from his stomach, Ron began heaving everything in sight onto his plate. Hermione tutted loudly at this and continued spooning potatoes and sprouts onto her own plate. “So Harry, have you decided what you are going to take yet? Will you be doing potions with me?” Harry finished a large mouthful of pork chop before replying. “Well I’m going to have to do potions if I want to be an Auror. Don’t think Snape will be too happy though do you?” Ron snorted. “I can just imagine the look on his face when he sees your name on the list. I reckon Dumbledore will make him take you though. You did really well in your potions O.W.L. didn’t you? So he can’t kick you out because your crap can he? Naw, I reckon you’re alright mate, though I dunno why you want to put up with that git for another two years though, I’m glad I’m not!”

At the end of the feast they made their way to the front of the great hall with the other 6^th years and signed up for their N.E.W.T classes. Harry signed up for Transfiguration, Potions, Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts. Ron chose Transfiguration, Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts and Herbology. Hermione was only doing one subject more than everyone else this year, so she did Transfiguration, Potions, Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts and , to Ron’s great amusement, Muggle Studies. Hermione had decided she wanted to be a Healer, after the Department of Mysteries she knew that she wouldn’t be much good in a fight, she just wanted to run away and hide somewhere. A lot of good I am she thought as they headed back to the common room. After failing to keep Harry safe in June she decided that the only other way she could ever be of any use was to heal people after the fighting, that way she would still be helping, but not directly in a battle.

“Hermione? Hello? You listening?” she looked around and realised she’d been caught up in her thoughts all the way to the common room. They were outside the portrait of the Fat Lady and Harry and Ron were both looking at her. “What? Oh I’m sorry Harry, did you say something?” Harry patiently repeated himself for the third time. “Do you know the password ‘Mione? ‘cause I don’t fancy standing out here all night.” Hermione replied that she didn’t, but at that point Neville arrived. “Oh hiya Harry! Hermione, Ron! Had a good summer? The password’s Unity by the way, a prefect told me on the way here.” they all went through the portrait hole into the common room, with Harry and Ron chatting to Neville about Quidditch. honestly! Hermione thought don’t they ever think about anything else? she shock her head in exasperation and walked off to where Ginny was talking to another fifth year girl and Colin Creevy.

~*~*~*~

The next morning at breakfast Harry and Ron were still talking about quidditch. This time talking about the changes to house teams and Gryffindors chances for winning the Quidditch cup. Just as Hermione was getting thoroughly bored, Ginny came and sat down opposite them, next to Dean Thomas and gave his a very warm smile, which made Ron spill pumpkin juice all over the table. Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry tried to cover up a grin by stuffing more bacon into his mouth. Ginny sighed and tossed three pieces of parchment across the table to them and handed one to Dean. “Your timetables” she said as they looked at her questioningly. “Its not fair! You all get free periods this year! You don’t have five lessons a day!” she sighed and tossed her long red hair over her shoulder. Harry scanned his timetable and grimaced. “Look on the bright side Gin, you don’t have two hours of Snape first thing on a Monday do you?” Dean looked over at Harry’s timetable and grinned. “Hard luck mate! I’ve got Professor Vector first, two hours of Arithmancy. That’s not too bad, Vector is ok.” At this Ron muttered something inaudible and glared at Dean who had just taken Ginny’s hand. Ron hadn’t spoken to Dean since he started dating Ginny at the end of their fifth year. Ginny sighed and glared at him. “When are you going to grow up Ron? Don’t be so immature!” she got up and stalked out the Great Hall, followed by Dean. Hermione shot Ron that disapproving look that she was so good at and said “She’s got a point you know. You really are being stupid about this!” Ron was still watching Dean and Ginny walk across the Great Hall and replied distractedly. “Huh? Were you talking to me?” he turned back to Harry “Hey don’t you think Dean Thomas has really changed Harry? He’s really bad this year don’t you think? There’s just something about that boy.” Harry just grinned at Hermione and shook his head. Boys! Hermione thought. Useless, the lot of them!

~*~*~*~

Arguments

She stood by the window looking out at the cloudy sky and dull green hills that surrounded her brother’s manor. She moved in shortly after her attack on the train. The Ministry fools hadn’t even thought to look for her here, they were too wrapped up in the chaos of their own meaningless politics to look for her.

They underestimated her. But soon they would understand, soon they all would..

She turned back to face the man lounging in the chair by the fireplace, the firelight casting flickering shadows over his pale pointy face and blonde hair tied back in a black band. She studied him as he sipped the red wine in his hand. He annoyed her. He had the lazy but deadly grace of a hunting cat about to strike out at unsuspecting prey.

Amusement sparkled in her eyes. He really thought he could manipulate her. That she would be impressed at his pitiful master’s invitation to her.

“The Dark Lord has greatly honoured you by inviting you into his presence. He has things to discuss with you.” The man drawled in that amusingly superior tone that he no doubt thought would intimidate her.

He had escaped from Azkaban during the Summer along with some more of Voldemort’s sheep. She was completely unimpressed with him and all his fancy speeches. She couldn’t believe he had lasted this long without someone killing him. She contemplated doing it now, herself.

Maybe some other time.

Now he was too valuable. That annoyed her. Voldemort was a fool to let this man get so close to him, to give him so much power. A sneer marred her perfect face as she turned to the door. So Voldemort wanted to talk to her did he? Well tough. She didn’t want to hear anything he had to say to her.

She walked towards to door, then paused as she reached the hallway.

The reconsidered. This could be quite amusing.

“Tell your master I accept”

~*~*~*~

“Good Morning class. As some of you may know, my name is professor Weasley and this is professor Tonks. Unusual as it may seem, this year you will be having two Defence against the Dark Arts professors. On Tuesday mornings you will be having your lesson with me, and on Thursday afternoons professor Tonks will be teaching you.” Bill Weasley started the 6^th years’ first Defence against the Dark Arts lesson.

Harry, Ron and Hermione had seats in the middle of the room ,Ron refused to sit too near to the front with his brother teaching the class. He was extremely shocked when he walked in the room to see Tonks and Bill standing at the desk. He stopped dead and just stared at them. Hermione was just as shocked, but recovered a lot faster than Ron. Ron bombarded Bill with questions, but Bill only shook his head and told him to sit down and he would answer any questions when he had introduced himself to the class. Ron was still muttering to himself when the lesson finished and scowling down at the essay question Bill had set them for homework. “Well really Ron! Did you honestly expect professor Weasley to let you off homework just because he’s your brother?” Ron just shot her a nasty look and walked faster to catch up with Seamus and Neville. “I don’t think it’s the homework that’s bothering him” Harry said staring at Ron’s retreating back thoughtfully. “I just don’t think he wants his brother to teach him, Hogwarts is his place away from the rest of the family, now Bill’s here too and has the power to give him homework and detentions.” Hermione looked amazed. “You came up with that by yourself?” She said incredulously. At the look on his face she quickly added “I didn’t mean…I mean…err…” she gave up and to her surprise saw him grinning at her. “What?” she asked confused. “Its just funny, seeing you lost for words. Doesn’t happen too often.” he replied, still grinning. She scowled at him but before she could reply a voice called out from behind them “Weasley, a professor! I can’t believe it! I’m not going to be taught by that riff-raff! Dumbledore must feel sorry for him I suppose, letting him stay in the castle and be a professor instead of living in that hovel of theirs. I can’t think of any other reason he‘d let one of those peasants teach here!”

Harry froze mid-stride and turned around, his face oddly calm. “Well Dumbledore obviously likes having ‘riff-raff’ in school, after all, you’re still here aren’t you Malfoy? How’s your mum by the way?” Draco Malfoy’s pale face went slightly pink and his eyes narrowed in anger. His mother had been admitted to St. Mungo’s shortly after Lucius Malfoy was sent to Azkaban. She wouldn’t do anything for herself any more, she just ranted on about how useless Draco was, as if it was his fault his father was in prison. “You shut up about my mother Potter! At least I‘ve got one!” Malfoy’s wand was suddenly pointing between Harry’s eyes. His other hand was clenched at his side and he was almost shaking with fury. Red sparks shot out the end of his wand as he glared furiously at Harry. “Is that the best you can do Malfoy? Not up to your usual standards is it?” Hermione said, glancing at Harry, who looked like he was about the hit Malfoy. She quickly took his arm and steered him away. Malfoy shouted after them “That’s right Potter! Hide behind your mudblood girlfriend as usual!” Harry stiffened and made as if to turn around, but Hermione tightened her grip on his arm. “Ignore him Harry!” she told him sternly and continued leading him towards the common room. Harry suddenly shook her hand away. “Get off Hermione! I’m not a baby, and I don’t need you making a fool out of me in front of half the school!” he said furiously and stalked off. Hermione stood in shock, her eyes wide. I can’t believe he just said that… I was only trying to help she thought, and to her horror her eyes started to fill with tears. Angrily she wiped them away and turned towards the library to do her homework and forget about what Harry just said.

Harry got half way to the common room before he started feeling really guilty, Hermione was just trying to stop him getting into trouble by fighting with Malfoy. He shouldn’t have said those things to her, he could see shock on her face and the tears in her eyes when he said it, but he still walked off, furious at himself more than her. Now he felt really guilty. He doubled back and went to find her. She wasn’t where he left her, and she didn’t go back to the common room, he would have seen her. That left the library.

He found her working furiously on what looked like an essay, head down, scribbling away at an alarming speed. Harry sat down next to her, but she didn’t look up at him until she finished the paragraph she was working on. When she finally met his eyes he could see she was angry at him, and hurt.

“What’re you writing?” Harry asked after a few minutes of silence. Hermione turned back to what she was writing and after a while seemed to decide to answer him. “A letter to Victor.” she said shortly. “Oh” For some reason this made Harry feel kind of odd. He frowned, why should he feel odd about Hermione writing to Krum? It wasn’t like he was jealous or anything! Of course not, what reason did he have? He realised Hermione was looking at him again. “A assume you came for a reason? Or are you here just to frown at me?” she asked coolly. He quickly stopped frowning and had the sense to look embarrassed and slightly uncomfortable. “I err….well…err…what I said…um…” He stumbled over his words under her cool gaze, and then looked down at the table. “What I mean is….I’m err…I’m sorry…about what I said, its not true.” she was silent for so long that he finally looked up at her, wondering if she was about to shout at him. He was quite alarmed when she suddenly threw her arms round him and hugged him. He awkwardly patted her back, very surprised at her reaction, and more so at her next words. “I’m sorry too Harry. I shouldn’t interfere! I just don’t want to see you get in trouble. I know how horrible Malfoy is to you, and I wont stick my nose in any more, I promise I wont!” Hermione finally let go of a very surprised Harry and sat back, wiping her tears away again. She rolled up her parchment and pulled her Defence against the Dark Arts essay towards her. She was pleasantly surprised when Harry got out a spare bit of parchment and started his essay too, talking to her again as if they had never argued. was I just imagining the jealous look on his face when I said Victor’s name? she wondered, then decided that wishful thinking wasn’t going to get her anywhere.

An unexpected announcement

With all the work the sixth year students had to cope with, the first week of school seemed to fly by. Harry wasn’t the only one panicking about all the homework he had to find time for. Neville was already on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and Hermione took pity on him and spent a lot of her spare time helping him with his work. The only thing he could understand and was good at was Herbology, and he’d spend hours chatting to anyone who’d listen about his latest Herbology lessons.

Quidditch practices were going to start at the beginning of November, and to his great surprise Harry found himself voted in to be the Gryffindor Captain as Angelina had left at the end of last year along with Katey Bell and Alicia Spinet . Both he and Ron were trying to cope with their massive work load on top of drawing up tactical diagrams and discussing this year’s team line-up for the upcoming quidditch season. So far they had decided on Harry as Seeker, with Ginny as a reserve. Ron would be Keeper…and that’s as far as they had got. As their former chasers and beaters had left school they found themselves stuck. They decided to hold trials a week from now, on Friday 14^th after classes had finished. They hoped that some of the new second years would show promise, and Dean and Seamus had both expressed an interest in becoming Beaters. “Well if we have Dean and Seamus as Beaters, then we just need to get the Chasers.” Harry said over breakfast on the first Saturday of term. “Yeah, Seamus is a good flyer, but I dunno about Thomas though, I reckon he’s not good enough.” Ron replied predictably. Hermione followed his gaze and saw that he was staring down the table where Dean and Ginny were talking animatedly, as far away from Ron as possible. “Ron, you and Harry have had this same conversation at least seven times already! Why don’t you just spread the word that the trials will be for the Beater and Chaser positions, and everyone who wants to try out can come. So everyone has a fair chance, even Dean Thomas!” This must have been the fifth time she’d said this, but they still managed to have the same conversation over and over again, and she was really getting quite bored of it, and she told them so. “Well you don’t have to join in!” Ron said irritably. Hermione snapped back at him “Fine I wont! Don’t mind me, getting in the way of your stupid, pointless conversations!” Hermione got up and left as Ron opened his mouth to argue back at her. She quickly joined Ginny, Dean and Seamus leaving the Great Hall and walked back to the common room with Ginny, leaving the boys in the entrance hall; they were going down to the quidditch pitch to practice.

As the girls entered the common room they found their way blocked by a throng of Gryffindors crowding round the notice board on the wall of the common room by the portrait hole. “The next Hogsmeade weekend dates must be up.” Ginny suggested doubtfully; Hogsmeade had never caused this much excitement. The two girls waited until most of the people had moved away, then finally got a look at the notice board. Covering half of it was a large parchment with the announcement:

Halloween Masquerade Ball

On Saturday October 31^st there will be a Masquerade Ball open to all students fourth year and above. The doors to the Great Hall will open at 8pm and the Ball will end at 1am. The idea of the Ball is as follows:

Good luck!

“Oh my god! Hermione this is great! I can’t believe it ’Mione, we’ve got to go to this!” Ginny squealed excitedly. Hermione agreed just as excitedly. This may actually be good she thought its about time I had some fun! She was quite surprised that she was so excited about this, but she couldn’t help but look forward to it. Ginny suddenly grabbed her arm “Oh no! we’ve only got three weeks to do our costumes! And we don’t even know what they will be yet!” Hermione prised Ginny’s fingers off her arm and assured her that they would probably have plenty of time to get costumes, and she pointed out a Hogsmeade notice below the Ball announcement. “See? Next weekend we can go to Hogsmeade, we’ll get our costumes there. Calm down Gin, it’ll be fine.” she signed up both of them on the already foot-long list of names and waited for the boys to come in and see the notice.

By Sunday morning the whole school was exchanging rumours about the upcoming Ball. Only the first, second and third years were not buzzing with excitement, but even they were speculating on what would be happening and what band Dumbledore had hired for the evening. The most popular rumour was that Yellow Hell, an increasingly popular all wizard band would be playing all night. “Apparently the lead singer, Waldo, is McGonagall’s nephew. Just think! McGonagall’s nephew in a rock band! I wonder what she thinks about that?” Ron grinned. Hermione frowned at him, “Well actually Ron, her nephew is the lead singer, and Professor McGonagall is very proud of him!” She informed him loftily. Seamus and Neville were listening intently. “How do you know?” Neville asked her. Hermione looked around and saw that half of the Gryffindors in the common room were looking over at her with interest. “Oh, well, she told me after Transfiguration on Friday.” Hermione said, not used to so much attention. She also didn’t like the fact that she was adding to the already bursting network of rumours that spread through the school like wildfire. “You know,” said Harry “by tonight it will be all over the school that McGonagall herself will be singing!” Hermione sighed. “Your probably right Harry, its like Chinese Whispers. All the facts end up changing as people hear things wrong, and then repeat it wrong and soon everyone will believe something completely ridiculous and untrue.”

They were sitting in the common room in their favourite armchairs by the fire, Hermione checking over the boys’ Charms homework while they played chess next to her, Ron this time only just beating Harry. “You know, I reckon you’re getting better at this Harry, you actually nearly won the last game - no! hit it you idiot! it’s a bishop, drag it away, watch out for that knight!” he urged on his pieces, with Harry wincing as his bishop got smashed up for the fourth game in a row. “Naw, chess obviously isn’t my game… we should play gobstones next.” he said hopefully. He had more luck at gobstones than chess, he actually won sometimes. “Or,” Hermione suggested, “You could finish your Charms essays. Ron, you’ve got the spelling of petrificus totalus wrong five times…you’ve spelt it different each time! And Harry, what on earth has cheering charms got to do with anything? You’ve done your whole essay wrong! Honestly! Don’t you ever listen in class?” she asked, scribbling out some of Harry’s messy writing and replacing it with a correct sentence in her own neat script. “So have you boys wrote your names down on the list for the Ball yet?” she asked them hopefully. She didn’t fancy going on her own, but even if they didn’t go, Ginny would be there, but it would still be nice if they decided to go. “What do you thing mate?” Ron asked Harry. “it could be good, but what if your partner ends up being some spotty little fourth year?” he pulled a face and shuddered. “Ronald Weasley!” scolded Ginny, who had come to join them when she heard the word ‘Ball’. She scowled at him. “I can’t believe you just said that! Is that all you care about? What your partner looks like? And anyway, you won’t end up with a ‘spotty little fourth year’ because all partners will be in the same year, or just one year above or below!” she informed him. “And anyway, maybe your partner wont be too thrilled on having you tread on her toes all night when you try to dance!” Hermione and Harry tried hard to hide their laughter, but failed. Ron’s ears went red as he saw them trying not to laugh. “That’s not fair Gin! I’ve got loads better since mum made us all have dancing lessons in the summer. And besides, Harry was just as bad as me, remember?” this wiped the grin off Harry’s face as he remembered Mrs Weasley giving them all dancing lessons in the holidays. He couldn’t see the point to it, but he soon realised how unbelievably bad at dancing he was, but now, with a lot of help and giggling from Mrs Weasley, Hermione and Ginny, both Harry and Ron could get through a whole dance without falling over or treading on anyone’s toes. He quickly steered the conversation away from his dancing skills. “I’m going to put my name down anyway. D’you want me to put yours down too?” he asked Ron as he walked over to the notice board. Ron nodded and brightened up. “Well” he said “at least this time we don’t have to ask a girl to go. We’ll have no problem getting dates this time, because someone else is doing it for us!” Harry privately agreed, but didn’t say anything when he saw both Hermione and Ginny scowling at Ron.

Once again guys, thanks for your reviews. And don’t worry, there will be some H/Hr very soon!

Corsets

All through the day on Monday owls flew in and out of classrooms, delivering slips of parchment to eagerly waiting students. By the time her lessons had finished, Hermione was feeling quite worried. She still hadn’t got her number yet. She looked up every time an owl flew into the Great Hall at dinner, but all the owls flew towards other people. “Don’t worry ’Mione, your not the only one.” Ginny sighed as she came to sit next to her. “I haven’t got one yet, and neither has Parvati. But I think they’ll come soon. Come on, lets go back to the common room, I don’t think I can stand to listen to Lavender’s costume ideas any more!” Hermione got up and followed Ginny glumly out of the Great Hall. They saw Luna Lovegood in the Entrance Hall and she wondered over to them, as usual looking as though she had no idea where she was going or how she had got there. “Oh hello.” she said, looking slightly surprised “Have you seen the costume lists yet? They’ll be in your common room, on the notice board. Its rather good you know, the way its all planned. Is Ronald going by the way?” Ginny and Hermione exchanged glances and Ginny tried hard to stifle her giggles. “Err yes he is going. Have you got your number yet?” Ginny asked. “Oh yes, and I’m getting my dress on Saturday. Well anyway, I have to go now. Goodbye” Luna said vaguely and drifted off.

They found another notice beside the Ball announcement on the notice board when they got back to the common room. It said:

Costume for the Masquerade Ball

You must come dressed according to the following guidelines:

If your number for the Ball ends in a 1, 2 or 3 you must dress to the theme: traditional style muggle ball garb

If your number for the Ball ends in a 4,5 or 6 you must dress to the theme: story-book princes/princesses

If your number for the Ball ends in a 7,8,9 or 0 you must dress to the theme: old-fashioned traditional style wizards’ ball garb

If you tap your parchment with your wand, the number will disappear and you will see two colours. These are the colours you should base your costume on.

Thank you

“Ginny! Hermione! These two owls have been sitting on the back of your chairs for over an hour!” Colin Creevy called from near the fireplace. Ginny squealed in excitement as a large barn owl swooped towards her and landed on her outstretched arm. She untied the parchment from its leg and it took off again immediately. Hermione went over to the one perched on her chair and it stared haughtily up at her, no doubt annoyed at having to wait so long. It stuck out it leg stiffly and she untied the parchment. The owl ruffled its feathers irritably before flying out the open window. Hermione unrolled the parchment and looked at her number. It was 58. Ginny glanced over her shoulder at it. “Ugh, you’ll have to wear a corset!” she said in sympathy. “Why?” Hermione asked in horror. Ginny grinned at her. “I take it you’ve never seen a traditional style witches’ ball gown before?” when Hermione shock her head Ginny continued. “Well, they have wide skirts, ooh you’ll have to wear a petticoat and the underskirts to bulk it out! The top of them is a corset style that laces up the front, back, or sides. It sometimes has sleeves or straps, but not usually.” Ginny grinned evilly at her. Hermione watched expectantly for her to continue. When she did not Hermione said impatiently “Well, what’s the style of the top over the corset?” To her horror, Ginny just giggled. “Oh Hermione, there’s no top over the corset! Of course not!” She saw the look of horror on Hermione’s face so continued “Tradition style witches’ gowns were only worn on very special occasions. Like grand balls and such. It was considered the height of fashion to wear a dress like that. You might have to get it made you know.” she added “I don’t know anywhere that makes dresses like that.” oh my goodness! Hermione thought I cannot believe I have to wear that! She tried to stop thinking about it by asking “So what number are you?” Ginny checked her parchment again, then said “86, so I’ll have to make a fairytale princess type dress! You’ll help wont you?” she asked Hermione anxiously. “Of course I will. Oh, and I think that even fairytale princesses have to wear corsets!” Ginny wrinkled her nose at the idea then shrugged. They were interrupted by Harry and Ron coming over, complaining loudly about today’s homework. Hermione quickly hid her parchment in her pocket and saw Ginny do the same. Harry grinned. “So you’ve got your number then?” He said. “I got mine earlier.” Hermione grinned back. “Looks like we’ll have a busy day shopping on Saturday then!” But apparently they wouldn’t, Harry explained that to keep all costumes a surprise, the girls were allowed in Hogsmeade on Saturday, and the boys were going in on Sunday. Hermione agreed that this was a really good idea, but was slightly disappointed because she wasn’t going to get to see what kind of things the boys were buying to wear to the Ball.

~*~*~*~

“You know ’Mione, I think that almost every girl will be wearing a corset.” Ginny said as they looked in the windows of Scarlet’s Gowns. It was one of five dress shops in Hogsmeade, and all of them seemed to have heard about the Ball and had brought in a load of different gowns in all shapes and sizes. Hermione was glad to see that there were some quite respectable looking dresses that she may actually be able to wear in public and not die of embarrassment due to the very low necklines and revealing styles. Scarlet’s Gowns was a shop at the far end of Hogsmeade and was quite hard to find unless you know where it is. Ginny said that her mum took her here a few times because the dresses were all extremely nice and also very cheap. The owner of the store, Scarlet Winters, was an old friend of Molly Weasley, and didn’t believe in charging extortionate prices for garments made quickly and easily by magic. Hermione had already decided she liked her even before they got in the shop.

When she pushed open the door a bell sounded somewhere at the back of the shop announcing their entry. Hermione found herself surrounded by the most beautiful dresses she had ever seen, all unique and special. Some simple, some complicated, with beadwork and embroidery. She jumped when she heard a voice directly behind her, and turned around to find Scarlet Winter smiling at them. “Hello Ginny dear! It’s been awhile since I last saw you. And who is your friend?” she asked, smiling at Hermione. Scarlet Winter was mid-forties, slim, with shoulder length dark hair in ringlets. She was wearing a deep purple robe, with moons embroidered round the cuffs and hem. “Hello Scarlet!” Ginny said cheerfully. “This is Hermione Granger, she’s in the year above me. Have you got any dresses that…” Ginny got no further than that because Scarlet turned and ushered them through to the fitting room at the back of the property. “You are looking for Ball gowns, yes? What theme did you get? Oh, and the colours?” she enquired, looking at Hermione. “I have got the traditional witches dress, and the colours are sky blue and dark blue.” Scarlet thought for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll bring out a selection. Ginny dear, I’ll see to you in a minute.” She went out of the room and they could hear her rummaging through the racks of dresses. She can back a few minutes later with three dresses. Hermione gasped as Scarlet held up the first one. It had a floor length pale blue skirt that parted at the front to reveal a deep blue underskirt. The bodice of the dress was also pale blue, with the lacing at the front in the same deep blue as the underskirt. It was strapless, with a low (but not too low) neckline that had tiny silver stars embroidered round it. “Oh its beautiful!” Hermione exclaimed. She only quickly glanced at the other two dresses, both of which she did not like nearly so much. Scarlet smiled. “There’s a dressing room through there” she said, pointing down a corridor. “Go try it on while I get Ginny sorted out with hers.” Hermione went down the corridor and found the dressing room. She went in and tried to work out how exactly you were supposed to put the dress on. She was very glad that she picked a dress that wasn’t just a corset, a bodice is a completely different thing she told herself. As she began taking the layers apart to discover how to put it on, she found to her horror that actually the dress did have a corset. She groaned. well at least you’ll have something over the top, so its not just a corset! she thought. She found that the dress had three layers; the corset and a net type skirt that made the outer skirt stay wide. Then came the underskirt and after that the bodice and outer skirt. She had got as far as the underskirt when scarlet called to her to ask if she needed any help. “Yes please!” Hermione said, wondering how exactly she was meant to get out of all this.

Hermione emerged from the dressing room a few minutes later to find Scarlet standing in front of Ginny, wand in hand, making adjustments to her dress. “Ginny you look wonderful!” Hermione gasped as her friend turned to face her. She was wearing a beautiful dark green gown with little silver beading on the skirt and the short puffy sleeves. The dress really set off her red hair and brought out the green-blue of her eyes. She squealed when she saw Hermione. “Wow Hermione! That dress really suits you! You look great!” she said, looking her up and down. “Really?” Hermione said doubtfully. “You don’t think I look stupid in it?” Ginny replied that she certainly didn’t and Scarlet agreed. “You both look wonderful! Hermione dear, I think that waist needs to go in a bit, but other than that it looks super!” she twirled her wand and Hermione felt the dress tighten around her waist.

It took them ten minutes to get out of their dresses and into their normal clothes. When they finally got back to the front of the shop Scarlet had two large bags in her hands. “Here you go dears. And don’t worry about the cost Ginny, because I’ll sort it out with Molly when I see her next week.” Hermione paid for her dress and they took their bags and left just as three giggling fourth year girls came in.

Hermione saw Harry sitting in the common room by the fire working on a wiggling diagram for quidditch practice and went over and sank into the chair beside him, grateful to be able to sit down. Harry grinned at her “Hard day shopping ’Mione? You get what you wanted?” She smiled back at him. “Oh you should see it Harry! Its really beautiful! But I’m just going to look silly in it though.” she sighed. Harry reached over and put his hand over hers. “Don’t be stupid Hermione. You’re going to look great, really.” Hermione looked up at him and saw that he was being serious. That made her feel better. And he hadn’t taken his hand off hers, which made her feel even better. “Thanks Harry. You’re going to look great too.” She smiled at him and he grinned back, happy that he managed to cheer her up, he hated seeing her upset. Suddenly Ron appeared and slumped down into a chair, making them both jump. Harry took his hand away quickly, and wondered why he felt so reluctant to do so. Which made him suddenly realise that Hermione was a girl, as well as his best friend. He had no idea what made him think of that but as Ron started a long rant about Malfoy tripping him up, he studied Hermione. She had changed a lot since their first year he realised. He wondered how he had never noticed before how much she had changed. she was no longer the bossy swot with bushy hair that he had known in his first year. Now she had grown up into a young woman. A very good looking young woman he thought, then instantly wondered what part of his brain that thought came from. Stop it! he scolded himself she’s your best friend, you shouldn’t be thinking these things about her!

“Harry? Hello? Harry? Oi!” Harry jumped as Ron threw a book at him, causing Hermione to frown. “Ron!” she snapped, picking up the book, “You really could have damaged this you know!” Then she added when she saw the look on Harry’s face “Oh, and hurt Harry too.” she grinned at him and put the book back on the table. “As I was saying Harry, d’you want to go down for food now, I’m starving!” Ron moaned as his stomach rumbled loudly. “Yeah sure, you coming Hermione?” Harry asked as he got up and put away his quidditch diagrams in his bag. “I don’t think so, I’ve got to go put the dress away properly. And anyway, I can’t eat anything for the next week or I won’t fit into that stupid corset!”

Hey guys! Sorry I took ages to upload this - have been out most of last week and all weekend - had our school prom on Friday, it was amazing! The guy I went with got me ten red roses, how sweet! (not twelve, he said he wanted to be different! lol) but I better not ramble on about it though, you’d get bored! The pictures are fab though, everyone looks amazing! …I’m still talking aren’t I…

The Halloween Masquerade Ball

The week before the Ball seemed to fly by for Hermione, and she couldn’t decide whether that was a good thing or not. She was getting increasingly nervous about who her partner would be. More than once she woke up terrified from a dream in which Dumbledore lifted the spell at midnight and Hermione found herself face to face with Draco Malfoy. Each time this happened she told herself that she would not go, but if she was honest, wild thestrals couldn’t keep her away. She was actually really looking forward to it.

Well at least its not as low as Lavender’s! Hermione thought, tugging at the bodice of her dress and sighed as it went back to what it was before. It was 5pm on October 31^st - the night of the Ball. Hermione, Lavender and Parvati were in their room, getting ready for the Ball. Ginny had joined them to help with their makeup, she seemed to have a talent for it. “Hermione, would you stop doing that! As much as you pull, its not going to get any higher!” Ginny exclaimed. “Here, this will stop it slipping down at least” She waved her wand and Hermione felt a strange tingling feeling on her chest. She frowned down at her dress. “What did you do Ginny? That felt odd.” Ginny just shrugged. “I don’t know exactly, its just something mum taught me. Now hold still, I’ve got to get this right!” she scooped up large amounts of Sleekeasy’s hair potion and rubbed it into Hermione’s bushy hair. After half a pot of the stuff was absorbed into her hair, it finally lost the bushy look and Ginny nodded in satisfaction. She then called to Parvati “Will you curl Hermione’s hair now please? I’m not very good at the charm, and if I get it wrong we’ll have to do all this again!” Parvati came over and with a complicated wiggling movement of her wand, Hermione’s hair cascaded down past her shoulders in loose ringlets. Parvati then moved in front of her and using two light blue sparkling hair grips, held Hermione’s hair back from her face on one side. “There! Now all you need is Ginny to do your makeup, but you’ll have to wait though, because when she’s finished Lavender’s she’s doing mine. You look really nice Hermione, some guy is going to me very lucky tonight!” she smiled. “Thanks Parvati, you look wonderful too. You all do.” Hermione said, smiling at them. She found she was actually quite enjoying the whole girly thing. She had never really been that good friends with Parvati and Lavender, but this year they got on a lot better as Hermione took the time to talk to them. Finally Ginny came over to do her makeup. She applied a little blusher, but not too much or Hermione would complain. Next came the charm to curl her eyelashes, then she applied navy blue mascara, and Hermione tried not to blink too much, but still got told off. After this, Ginny added her eye makeup. Light blue fading into darker blue. Finally Ginny tried to draw on her navy blue eyeliner but ended up having to re-do the makeup of one eye as Hermione flinched away from the pencil and got it on her eyelid.

By half past six the girls were adding the finishing touches to their makeup and costumes. There was a tap on the window and Hermione went to let in the two owls that were perched on the sill. One flew straight to here shoulder, the other landed by Lavender. “Open it Hermione! It must be from your partner, telling you where to meet him! What does it say?” Ginny asked excitedly. Hermione smiled nervously and opened up the parchment. “Dear Miss 58” she read “Shall we meet at the top of the Marble Staircase at half past seven? I will be next to the portrait of Pongo the Smelly to wait for you. I will be wearing a dark blue shirt. Regards, 58.” Lavender giggled. “Well that’s romantic. Meeting by Pongo the Smelly’s portrait! Oh well, it could be worse I suppose, at least yours didn’t ask whether you’re any good at dancing or he won’t dance with you! Look at this!” She said, waving her note in front of them. They read it and laughed. It seemed like whoever Lavender was partnered with thought a lot of themselves. Hermione replied to her partner that half past seven is fine and confirmed the meeting place. Then they all sat down and waited until seven to see just how the identi-spell worked.

Harry was getting increasingly nervous watching Ron continuously pace around the room in his suit. Ron’s number was 21 and so he had to wear traditional muggle clothes, so he was dressed in a tux with a dark purple shirt on. Harry was in what Dean called a ‘peasant’ shirt, a loose shirt that laced up at the throat. Ron instructed Harry on what to wear and how to wear it. When Harry came in with the lace done up Ron laughed for five minutes while informing Harry what an idiot he looked. Apparently the lace was meant to stay loose, and the shirt was not meant to be tucked in. now Ron was talking very fast about all the partners that he would probably be stuck with, each worse than the last. Harry was now quite alarmed, and Neville was sitting wide-eyed on his bed biting his nails. Seamus was asking repeatedly why they had signed up for this and Dean was trying to read a quidditch book, although he had read the same page for the last ten minutes without noticing. “Don’t you think we’re overreacting a bit guys” Harry said. “I mean, its only a Ball right?” they all just stared at him and replied that that was exactly the problem. Not knowing who they would be dancing with all night seemed to be really bugging them. Dean said he was worried that Ginny would like the person she was dancing with more than him, which brightened Ron up. It looked like Dean and Ron were about to start arguing when an owl flew in through the window and dropped a piece of parchment on the floor between them. Dean picked it up and saw the number 58 written on it. “Here” he said, holding it out to the four boys in front of him. “Looks like your mystery partner has replied.” Number 58 took the parchment and opened it, reading out the reply to the others.

Seven o’clock. All through the school students gasped as they suddenly could not recognise their friends faces. As they tried speaking to each other they couldn’t even recognise their friends’ voices. Hermione, Ginny, Lavender and Parvati made their way down to the Entrance Hall, all talking excitedly. When trying to say anyone’s name, they found that they couldn’t, instead just went silent. They saw all the milling students as they descended the marble staircase, a lot of them calling out numbers in unrecognisable voices. “Hey, any of you 86?” a voice called. Ginny squealed excitedly. “Oooh that’s me! Wish me luck!” she hurried down the stairs towards the person who had called out her number. Hermione said goodbye to Lavender and Parvati and turned and made her way back up the staircase and saw that a guy in a dark blue shirt was standing there, waiting for her. She smiled nervously and made her way towards him.

Harry waited by the top of the staircase, tugging nervously at his dark blue shirt. He jumped at a nervous voice said behind him “Hello”. He turned around and gasped. A beautiful young lady stood before him wearing a lovely blue dress. He studied her face, and looked into her soft brown eyes that seemed so familiar, yet when he tried to think who it was his brain went all fuzzy. “Wow” he said quietly. “You, err, you look, err, great.” she smiled at him and he grinned back. “Shall we go?” Hermione asked the amazing young man in front of her. He looked so good, despite his messy hair. She looked into his eyes and saw that they were a brilliant green. She knew him, but yet she could not think who it was. He held out his arm and she took it, and together they went into the Great Hall.

Hermione gasped as they entered. The house tables had been cleared and replaced by little tables for two around the edge of a large dance floor in the centre of the Hall. The stage was set up, and Yellow Hell’s banner was draped across the wall behind it. Yellow Hell themselves had just walked on stage to the applause of the waiting couples. They struck up a fast song and the couples started dancing. “You want to dance?” The handsome young man beside her asked. “Yes, sure.” Hermione replied, and found herself being led onto the dance floor. As she stepped into his arms she felt as though she had danced with him before, they seemed to move together so well, so naturally.

Harry couldn’t believe it. He had been dancing for hours with this beautiful young woman and still had no idea who she was. They were sitting at one of the little tables around the dance floor and talking about everything and nothing. They chatted about everything but themselves, and Harry was increasingly sure that he knew this person fairly well. Still his brain wouldn’t let him even think about any names, and so he gave up trying, and just enjoyed spending time talking and dancing until midnight, when he would finally get to see who this amazing girl is.

Hermione couldn’t wait until midnight, but at the same time she was anxious. What if he doesn’t like he when he sees who I am? she thought. But at that point the took her hand and led her onto the dance floor again. They danced through three songs, perfectly instep with each other. The music suddenly stopped playing and the lead singer of the band announced: “Hey guys and girls, we’re gonna play one last song for you and by the end you’re gonna see who you were dancing with all night!” Cheers followed this statement and the band struck up a slow, romantic song that got all couples onto the dance floor. Hermione felt so happy in the arms of this mysterious young man that she did not want the song to end. She rested her head against his shoulder and he put his arms firmly around her. Too soon the last note of the song rang out and Hermione reluctantly pulled away and looked into his beautiful green eyes… Harry’s eyes.

As she pulled away he looked into her eyes that had widened in surprise. “Hermione?” he half whispered. “Harry.” she said. He couldn’t believe how he hadn’t recognised her before, how he had had her in his arms all night and not realised until now. Suddenly he knew that she was more to him than just a best friend. Slowly he tilted his head and his lips met hers.

Hermione closed her eyes as Harry’s soft lips touched her own. She slanted her mouth and stepped closer to deepen the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and feeling him pull her closer. …I’m kissing Harry…I’m finally kissing Harry… she thought vaguely as she lost herself in his embrace, in his kiss…

Consequences

…Hermione closed her eyes as Harry’s soft lips touched her own. She slanted her mouth and stepped closer to deepen the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and feeling him pull her closer. …I’m kissing Harry…I’m finally kissing Harry… she thought vaguely as she lost herself in his embrace, in his kiss…

Hermione opened her eyes slowly as they reluctantly parted. She smiled hesitantly at him, and he smiled back, looking deep into her eyes. “Hermione, you look beautiful, you really do.” he said quietly, his arms still around her. Hermione slowly became aware of their surroundings again. The world seemed to melt away as he kissed her, but now it came crashing back all too soon. Yellow Hell had struck up a faster tune, and all around them people were milling around, chatting away to their friends that they could suddenly recognise. Hermione felt Harry go suddenly tense and looked questioningly up at him. She saw he was looking over her shoulder, worry evident in his eyes. She turned around and saw Ron standing a few paces away, a look of betrayal on his face. He wordlessly shook his head in disbelief, slowly going red. Hermione could see the hurt and anger in his eyes as he stared at Harry. “You just have to have everything don’t you?” He said softly, closing the distance between them. “You had to take her away from me didn’t you?” Ron was now glaring at Harry with hate and jealousy radiating from him. “You have everything you have ever wanted! Why couldn’t I just have her? You know how must I like her!” he said, his voice rising at every word, people glancing round curiously. “Ron” Hermione said softly “I’m so sorry. Really I am. But I have always liked Harry, always!” Ron didn’t even look at her, just walked away, pushing past people on his way out of the Hall. Harry sighed. “Hermione I’m sorry… I really didn’t know he was there… I’m sorry that I’ve caused this.” Hermione just hugged him. “No Harry, its not your fault, its not anyone’s fault. Ron should just accept that we’re a couple now…we are a couple, aren’t we?” she asked uncertainly. She didn’t know if Harry even wanted to be with her, especially now they had hurt Ron. “Hermione” Harry said, pulling her close, “Of course we’re a couple. Don’t you know how much I like you?” he smiled at her and she smiled back, moving closer to kiss him again. Then, out the corner of her eye she saw a flash of blond and red twirl past. She turned her head, sure that she was seeing things. “Why is Ginny dancing with Malfoy? And smiling?” she asked, staring at the couple dancing in time with each other. Harry was also staring in them in disbelief, and he wasn’t the only one. Hermione could see Pansy Parkinson and her usual gang staring at Ginny open mouthed, a look of hate on their faces. Dean Thomas was standing not too far away, his look aimed at Malfoy, mirroring Pansy’s. Ginny and Draco seemed oblivious to all this as they danced, eyes locked on each other, deep in conversation. “Well there’s something I thought I’d never see.” Harry muttered. “Malfoy lowering himself to the level of a Weasley. What’s gotten into him?” Hermione snorted. “He must have hit his head. Come on, I like this song” she said, taking his hand as the next song started.

They danced through to one, when the prize for the best dressed couple was presented. Hermione clapped along with everyone else when Lavender Brown and Blaise Zanbini came up to receive their prize, keeping a distance between them. Obviously neither of them was overjoyed to discover who their partner for the evening had been.

Dumbledore walked onto the stage and quiet fell around the room. He smiled round at them all. “It’s nice to see that you all have made such an effort with your costumes tonight, you all look splendid! I’m afraid that the Ball has now ended, so off to bed with you all. I hope you have had as wonderful an evening as I have. Good night.” the students clapped and all moved towards the doors. Harry took Hermione’s hand and they moved through the mass of people, whispered comments following them as the gossip spread about their kiss and the confrontation with Ron. Harry quickened his pace, Hermione right beside him. She sighed, she should have known what it would be like if they got together. Most of the school had already assumed that they had been a couple for years, so they were surprised at Ron’s reaction and quite confused by it all.

Hermione and Harry slowly walk to the common room, hand in hand, each lost in their own thoughts. Hermione felt quite guilty about Ron’s reaction, but she felt angry too. He had no right to shout at them like that. She sighed, wondering what it would take to get Ron to talk to them again. Harry stopped, and she realised they had reached the portrait hole, the Fat Lady snoozing in her frame. Harry pulled Hermione around to face him, running one hand through her hair, the other at her waist. “Hermione I love your hair like this, it really suits you.” his eyes travelled over her and he grinned. “That dress suits you too…you should wear it more often.” she suggested, his eyes sparkling. Hermione playfully slapped his arm. “I don’t think so! Its got to be back at the shop next Hogsmeade weekend, I only hired it out.” she stepped closer to him and smiled. “So make the most of it while…” she hadn’t finished the sentence before Harry’s lips caught hers and once more the world ceased to exist, all that was real to her right then was Harry and her overwhelming feelings for him. She put her arms around his neck, kissing him back passionately. Just as things were getting interesting, they wee interrupted by a loud “Really!”. Hermione quickly moved away form Harry and looked around. The Fat Lady was staring at them, hands on hips. “Well really! I expected better behaviour than that! Especially from a prefect!” The Fat Lady scolded, swinging forward with a loud tut as Harry quickly said the password. Once inside the common room they were no longer alone, the room was half full of Gryffindors discussing the Ball and admiring each other’s costumes. When Harry and Hermione entered, Parvati and Lavender hurried over to them, grinning and giggling madly. “Ooh I just knew you two would get together!” Parvati squealed, clapping her hands. “It’s soo romantic! You make such a good couple, I’ve always said it!” Hermione smiled back at her. “Thanks Parvati. So who was your partner?” Parvati wrinkled her nose. “Ron Weasley. Well, to be fair, he’s not a bad dancer, and when he looked over and saw you two kissing, he just stomped off! I couldn’t believe it, it was so rude! Right in the middle of a really good song too!” she sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “At least it wasn’t as bad as Lavender, you saw who her partner was!” Lavender scowled at Parvati. “I don’t want to think about it! That boy is so obnoxious! Oh I’m going to bed!” she said and stalked off. Parvati giggled and shook her head then followed Lavender up the girl’s stairway. Hermione turned to Harry “Well, I think I’m going to turn in too. I’m so tired! Meet you down here tomorrow? We’ve got that potions essay to do remember?” Harry rolled his eyes. “Always thinking about bloody homework!” he grinned. “Well, goodnight ’Mione.” He kissed her on the cheek and walked up the boys stairway. Hermione watched him go, resisting the urge to touch that spot on her cheek where he’d just kissed her. She smiled and turned away, going up to her room to begin struggling out of her dress.

Harry went up the boys stairs and walked into his room, which was unusually quiet. He glanced around, Dean was scowling at the opposite wall, and Harry suddenly got the image of Ginny twirling across the dance floor with Draco Malfoy. poor guy Harry thought, wondering what had gotten into Ginny. It was Malfoy for gods sake! She couldn’t have broken Dean’s heart any more spectacularly. Harry looked over to Seamus and saw that he was laying on his bed fully clothed, staring at the ceiling. Neville was fast asleep, snoring softly. Harry finally looked to where he had been avoiding, but was quite relieved to find the hangings around Ron’s bed firmly shut. Harry sighed and slowly undressed and climbed into bed. He pulled his hangings closed and removed his glasses. His last thoughts before he closed his eyes were I kissed her… she kissed me back… he grinned as he fell asleep, and dreamt of Hermione.

Hermione woke up and winced at the sunlight streaming through the window. She rolled over and tried opening her eyes again and saw Ginny sitting at the foot of her bed. Hermione sat up and yawned. “Ginny! Hi. What brings you here to early?” Hermione noticed a sad look in Ginny’s eyes. “Well, I’m kinda hiding at the minute” she said, staring at the floor. Hermione scooted closer and put her arm around her friend. “Why Gin? What’s up?” she asked, concern evident in her voice. Ginny sighed. “Well I’m hoping to stay out the way. I don’t want to run into…certain people right now.” she got up and walked over to the window. “You mean Dean?” Hermione asked softly, knowing that this was going to be a touchy subject. “Yeah, and Ron and Draco too” she said. Hermione raised her eyebrows. “So its ‘Draco’ now is it? And why are you hiding from him?” Ginny scowled at the wall. “Well there’s no reason really. Huh! The nerve of him! I woke up to find that eagle owl of his staring at me from my dressing table. He had sent a note saying ‘last night was fun little red, maybe we should do it again sometime.’ Little red! Honestly! Just who does he think he is?” she burst out angrily. Hermione sighed. She should tell Ginny not to get involved with Malfoy, but she knew it wouldn’t do any good at all. She decided to drop it for now. “Come on Ginny, you can’t hide forever. Lets get some breakfast, ok? Just let me get dressed first.”

As they walked into the common room they came face to face with Ron. They all froze, the whole room going silent. Ron looked like he was just going to let it pass, but at that point Harry came through the portrait hole and his eyes flicked from Hermione to Ron and back again, and a weary look crossed his face. Ron turned and saw him and went instantly red as Harry crossed the room to stand next to Hermione. “You just couldn’t stay away from her could you!” Ron said loudly. “You just couldn’t stand it that I had something that you didn’t! You had to take her away from me didn’t you!” he yelled, poking his finger at Harry’s chest. “Don’t touch me!” he said, knocking Ron’s hand away. “ She isn’t a prize for people to squabble over Ron! She’s a person! Not a possession!” Harry shouted back at him. Ron’s eyes flashed and it looked like he wanted to hit Harry. Hermione quickly stepped between them. “Stop it! Both of you! I’m sorry Ron, I just don’t feel that way about you. And I was never ‘yours’. I don’t belong to anybody. I’m my own person Ron, not just something that you have that Harry doesn’t. I can’t believe you even thought of me like that. That’s not love! That’s not caring about someone! Its just wanting something so someone else can’t have it. I’m not a toy that Harry snatched away from you Ron! I have my own mind, my own feelings. Just accept it.” she finished softly and then grabbed Ginny’s arm and quickly made her exit, leaving a lot of very shocked Gryffindors staring after her.

A/N: Hi guys, thanks once more for loads of brilliant reviews, am especially grateful to the continuing reviews of Nice, DannyS, Amy Lynn, HhrReader, Sheryl and Lauren Titmus (although yours seem to be all the same Lauren…for each chapter…and also each author if I’m not mistaken…) thanks guys!

And I’m sure that you have all read the new HP book… don’t ya just love it?! Although some of the fan fictions on Portkey are just as good I feel (don’t worry, I’m not talking about mine!) I’m talking about the fics by talented authors such as lillyfan16, Jersey Princess, Hermione’s Twin, Twitch E. Littleferret, R K Thompson and of course PhoenixFirebolt with the amazing ‘Heirs of Hogwarts’. I think all of you guys could definitely give JK a run for her money any day.

Anyhow… does anyone know if Portkey are planning to add a Harry/Ginny or Ron/Hermione ship? I doubt it, but I think that it would be rather hard to keep true to the books without this change, and Harry/Ginny is definitely beginning to grow on me - as is Ron/Hermione. Sorry guys, but I’m beginning to love JK’s pairings *sigh* oh well…but I’m not gonna change any of my story though, it is still on strict h/hr lines…anyway… on with the story…

Meetings

The Riddle House stood dark and alone, its grounds overgrown, its window and doors boarded up to stop the local teens breaking in. But that wasn’t going to stop the others. They didn’t need to use doors to enter houses. The death eaters preferred to apperate in and out of their hideout. Pity any stray teenager who came within the walls of the Riddle House.

She studied the House and surrounding land carefully, invisibly. She had been there for over an hour, just watching. The deserted grounds had been the same since she arrived - empty. No flicker of movement, even animals seemed to stay away. Maybe the mere stench of the scum within was enough to repulse any intelligent creature.

She was going to hear what he had to say then leave, and she didn’t want any surprises. She didn’t like surprises if she was on the receiving end.

She walked up to the House, staying invisible. It was a simple trick she had learned, being invisible without a cloak. All she had to do was switch off her emotions and feelings, which wasn’t hard - she didn’t have many of either - and then hold her thoughts on one thing: being somewhere else. It wasn’t as though she was actually invisible, just that other people’s eyes refused to see her. It worked very well, she could maintain the condition for well over an hour, although anymore than that and her concentration began to waver. She still found it amusing that no one else knew the secret of it. It was ancient knowledge, forgotten by all but a few.

She took one last look at the House, then apparated inside, staying invisible. She walked silently down the wide hallway of the ground floor, stepping out the way when masked wizards approached. She ascended the stairs and followed the sound of voices. Another death eater walked straight at her - but veered around her at the last minute, eyes focused over her shoulder, and carried on walking. Stupid people, too simpleminded to even feel her presence.

She followed to voices to a large room on the second floor where a select few death eaters were gathered. Azalea walking into the room without the assembled seven witches and wizards noticing her. She leaned against the wall opposite the door and waited.

Then he came. The death eaters instantly fell silent when he entered, and all bowed and mumbled ‘Master, we live to serve’.

Azalea almost smiled. Sheep, she thought. that’s all they are, just worthless sheep.

The Dark Lord glanced around the room and his gaze swept over the spot where Azalea was leaning nonchalantly against the wall. His eyes widened in surprise for a second, then narrowed in anger briefly before he slowly smiled, turning towards her. “A clever trick my dear girl” He observed in his high, cold voice. The death eaters started in surprise when they suddenly became aware of the young woman standing a few paces from them. A few hands strayed to pockets for their wands. Voldemort waved a hand at them dismissively “There will be no need for that - after all she was invited” he said, cold amusement plain in his voice.

She remained expressionless but inside she was furious. He thinks I’m weak, hardly worth his attention. Does he think he can make me his puppet? Another slave to add to his collection?

“Am I just going to be staring at a load of masks, or do I get the pleasure of knowing who it is I am speaking to?” she enquired coolly. Voldemort just smiled his thin lipped smile and waved his hand at the death eaters, giving the order to remove their masks. Azalea looked around, disdain evident on her face. She almost felt sorry for these people, crawling at their masters feet, squabbling for his approval, leaping to obey his every command. She did not doubt that if he told them to crawl and kiss his boots they would do so. Sheep.

She looked around at them all, and recognised their faces. Antonin Dolohov, Bellatrix Lestrange, Crabbe, Goyle - she didn’t know their first names, and didn’t care - Lucius Malfoy, the usual sneer on his pale pointy face, Severus Snape - their Hogwarts spy - and then her eyes fell on the last wizard.

“Hello pet” Algernon Rookwood said. “Heard about Hector…shame really, he was always such a good student.”

“Father” she replied evenly. “Good student? He was working for Dumbledore you old fool. Had you wrapped round his little finger though didn’t he?” she said contemptuously. Her father’s eyes flashed. He hated her, couldn’t stand her. She was unfazed, she didn’t much like him either.

“Ah, family reunions… always so touching. I believe you were not asked to speak Algernon… I shall deal with you later…” The Dark Lord turned his cold eyes on Azalea. “We have things to discuss. I see you haven’t brought the Staff of Amaror with you. I was looking forward to examining that -”

“Stealing it you mean” Azalea cut in. “Like I’d let you within ten feet…”

Voldemort pointed his wand at her. “You dare interrupt me! Crucio!” but Azalea just smiled and expertly deflected the curse without uttering a word, causing it to hit Bellatrix and making her shriek in pain. Azalea smirked. Voldemort eyed Bellatrix with distain before turning back to Azalea. “You will learn respect” he hissed softly “In time you will learn. Your powers are considerable and may be of use to me. I suggest we work together. You know my aim. I want Potter dead. When he is gone, there is nothing to stand in my way. In our way. Serve me and you will have power beyond anything you have ever imagined.” she waited until he had finished this time before speaking.

“Well that was a pretty speech. But there are a few problems with it though.” Voldemort narrowed his eyes. “Go on” he hissed.

“Well, first of all, I have absolutely no interest in Potter at all, he means nothing to me. Second, I do not intend to learn to respect you, I will not grovel at your feet like these dogs, and I will serve nobody. Third, all your talk of the power I will have if I join with you… I do not need you to obtain power, I can do that very well by myself thanks. And lastly, I know that you want my Staff, but you will not get it, because I happen to have plans for it…I might let you play with it when I’m finished though, if you ask nicely, and maybe if you serve me well, I shall give you a bit of power!” With that she departed, the last thing she saw was the look of fury on every face, and the dread in her father’s eyes. She knew he would be punished for her insolence, and she hoped it would be agonizing.

Now she has things to do, things that did not involve Voldemort and his dogs. She found it quite amusing that they were furious with her, it could make things more interesting.

~*~*~*~

Hermione looked around, wondering where she was. She was fairly certain this was a dream, but it was so strange. She was standing naked on a glass platform about the size of her room. Past the edge of the platform was nothing. Just darkness and obscurity. She looked down and saw that the nothingness surrounded her. She felt like she was awake, she could feel the cold glass beneath her bare feet, and was very…aware… of everything. No, this didn’t feel like a dream at all, but yet it must be, it had to be.

“You’re wondering if this is a dream, yes?”

Hermione spun around to face the owner of the voice. “You!” she cried. “What do you want?” The older woman smiled cruelly. “Hermione didn’t I tell you I would be in touch, hmm? Did you really think I’d forget?” Hermione for her wand, but remembered she wasn’t wearing anything. Her cheeks burned red with embarrassment, but her eyes flashed with anger. Azalea tutted. “When will you realise you can not fight me and hope to win, Hermione? Like I said before, you have power, a lot of power. I could use a girl like you. What do you say? Join me and I will teach you what I know. All I ask is that you assist me in getting my Staff to work, that’s all.” the Staff of Amaror suddenly appeared in her hand, the sapphire glowing dully. “After that… well, we can do anything we want. Oh don’t look so concerned, I’m not going to kill poor little Harry Potter, I’ve not no quarrel with him. Its you I’m interested in Hermione, you planning on helping me?”

Hermione backed away. She had worked out that Azalea had somehow brought her here in her dreams. She had a notion of how to escape this dream, but wasn’t entirely sure it would work, or what would happen to her is she tried it. “You know” she said, backing away slowly “I don’t want power, I don’t want to help you. I don’t want any of it! Leave me alone.” and with that she squeezed her eyes shut and stepped backwards off the edge of the platform, into the blackness.

She sat bolt upright and her eyes flew open. She was sweating and shaking, the …dream… still vivid in her mind. She was back in her dormitory - had she really left? No, she decided, maybe her mind had left for a time, but her body was still firmly tangled in her night dress and bed sheets. She looked out the window and saw that it was just getting light, so she decided to get up. She couldn’t get back to sleep if she even wanted to, and she was terrified of trying. Shakily she got to her feet and pulled on her school robes and headed to the prefect’s bathroom.

Harry sat in the common room by the fire. It was still early, but he needed to finish his Transfiguration notes on transfiguring large objects before the lesson. He looked around curiously as the portrait hole opened and Hermione walked in, her hair still damp from a shower. “You’re up early” he commented.

Hermione jumped and looked around wide-eyes. She sighed with relief and collapsed into a chair close to his and performed a drying charm on her hair. Harry frowned, when he had called out to her she jumped like a frightened deer, ready to run at the slightest thing. “What’s wrong Hermione?” He asked, concerned. She looked like she was about to deny that anything was wrong but then she sighed, what was the point in hiding it? She told him everything; about Rookwood talking to her on the train, and her promise to get in touch. Finally she told him about the dream she just had, and Azalea’s offer to her.

He watched her as she told her story, and saw the fear in her eyes. Harry was furious, more with himself than anyone else. Why wasn’t I there on the train? he asked himself angrily. “I can’t believe this! Hermione why didn’t you tell me?!” he got up and started pacing. “This is really bad! You should have said something about the train! I can’t understand why you didn’t tell anyone!” Hermione just looked at him, then burst into tears. “I’m sorry Harry! I thought she’d just go away, I didn’t think she really was going to talk to me again! I thought she was just trying to scare me!” Harry went over to her and hugged her. “Hermione I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shout at you, its not you I’m mad at. Its me. And her. It’ll be ok, really. We’ll go to Dumbledore after breakfast and tell him all about it, ok?” Hermione just nodded and wrapped her arms tighter around him, relieved that he knew.

Dreamwalking

Straight after they had finished their breakfast, Harry and Hermione went up to the staff table and stood in front of Dumbledore. He looked up from his porridge and raised his eyebrows enquiringly. “Professor, we need to speak to you, its urgent.” Harry said quietly, aware of the other teachers listening, and the eyes of the other students in the great hall on them. Dumbledore gave him and Hermione a searching look and nodded. “Go up to my office Harry. The password is ‘acid lolly’, I’ll be there soon.” He gave them a small smile and they walked away. When they got to the gargoyle Harry said the password and it sprang to the side, revealing the moving staircase leading to Dumbledore’s office. They stepped onto it, making their way silently to the office.

Harry went straight over to Fawks, Dumbledore’s phoenix and began stroking him, leaving Hermione standing alone. She sighed quietly. He had hardly said two words to her since breakfast, so Hermione knew he must still be mad at her, but she knew that he was also mad at himself. She felt quite guilty about not telling him what Azalea Rookwood had said to her on the train. She knew she should have said something, but secretly a small part of her felt quite proud that a powerful witch like Rookwood had commented on Hermione’s powers. But she had quickly squashed down those feelings with guilt. She now saw how foolish she had been to think that Rookwood would not do as she had promised, and contact her. People like her don’t give up, she thought, not when they want something enough…but what does she want?

After ten minutes of silent waiting, Dumbledore strode into the room, followed by Tonks and Bill Weasley. Dumbledore sat down behind his desk and waved his wand, conjuring enough chairs for them all. “I thought that professors Tonks and Weasley may be of some use” he said pleasantly, seeing Hermione and Harry glance curiously at the two professors. “Please sit down, and tell us what it is that it so urgent” he continued, gesturing to the chairs in front of the desk. They sat down and Hermione took a shaky breath and began to tell them what she had told Harry earlier that morning, including everything that she could remember. Both Tonks and Bill interrupted her with questions through her story, and made her repeat some of it two or three times over. Dumbledore stayed silent, listening, eyes thoughtful behind half moon glasses. When Hermione got to the dream she had the night before, however, he frowned slightly. “Well this is something I admit I did not foresee” he said with a sigh. Hermione frowned. “Sorry sir, but what is?” Tonks sat forward in her chair, looking intently at Dumbledore and said “Is it possible professor? Could she really be… no-one had been born with that ability in hundreds of years…we all thought they had died out… but its not something she could have learned, is it?” she asked, clearly puzzled. Bill frowned, looking at Dumbledore for answers. Hermione looked between them, certain they could not be talking about what she thought they were. “You can’t mean Dreamwalking Professor?” she asked Dumbledore uncertainly.

“What’s Dreamwalking?” Harry asked, bewildered. Bill answered him “Dreamwalking is the ability to take someone in their dreams to the Space, which is a place where dreams come from - if you like, the place where they are made. Dreamwalkers, and ordinary witches and wizards with the right training, can manipulate events that happen in the Space, and can dream up almost anything. Dreamwalkers are the only ones who can bring people to the Space, but once there, a person can leave if the Dreamwalker allows it, or if they try hard enough” he said, then Tonks continued “But it seems very unlikely that Azalea Rookwood could be a Dreamwalker though, because Dreamwalking is hereditary, and the last Dreamwalker died over three hundred years ago, or so we thought. But I didn’t think there was any way it could be learned?” she asked Dumbledore doubtfully. His blue eyes looked troubled, which made Hermione uneasy, Dumbledore hardly ever seemed troubled about anything. “Well” he said “Although it is widely believed among the wizarding people that Dreamwalking cannot be learned, there are a few problems with this belief. For a start, how did the first Dreamwalkers start Dreamwalking if it cannot be taught? They had to learn from somewhere. Once they learned of course it was a different matter - the ability was woven into their genes for their descendants to inherit until the family died out. Something that cannot be taught has been learnt again it seems, an impossibility, no? So logically we must presume that Dreamwalking can indeed be learnt. How? I do not know. But now it seems that Miss Rookwood has discovered the instructions on how to Dreamwalk, and has begun using the ability that was forbidden centuries ago.” he finished. Hermione looked around, Tonks was scowling at the floor, Bill was staring into space, frowning. Harry was still looking at Dumbledore. “Professor,” he said “why was Dreamwalking forbidden? Can it harm the person brought into the dream?” he asked, his hand finding Hermione’s. Dumbledore looked at them both thoughtfully, as if deciding how much to tell them. Finally he said “I’m afraid so Harry. When the Dreamwalker snatches someone out of their dreams into the Space, he is then in control, as he, or she, will have extensive knowledge of the world of dreams, and usually have the power to use that knowledge against others. The more powerful the Dreamwalker is, the greater their ability to manipulate objects inside the Space.”

Harry frowned “But Hermione said she stepped off the platform and woke up. Rookwood couldn’t keep her there.” he said. Tonks stood up and began to pace as she replied to Harry’s question. “That’s probably because Rookwood wasn’t expecting Hermione to do that, as Hermione has never been to the Space before, none of us have. She probably thought that Hermione would not have a clue what to do to escape the dream., and was therefore unprepared for Hermione simply walking off the platform” she explained.

Hermione frowned and looked at Dumbledore “You said that ordinary witches and wizards can manipulate the Space professor. I thought that only Dreamwalkers can do that? Or at least, that is what the books told me” Dumbledore smiled slightly. “It is widely believed that Dreamwalkers, and only Dreamwalkers, can manipulate the Space, but a few of us know differently. Yes, if the witch or wizard is powerful enough, they can fight anything the Dreamwalker conjures up, and counter their moves. But fighting in the Space is extremely risky though” he said, his voice turning grave. “anything that happened to a person in the Space happens to them in the real world. If you, for example, twist your ankle in the Space, then you will wake to find your ankle hurt in reality as well. And if you are killed in the Space, then you will never wake from your dream, you will die in the real world as well. That is why Dreamwalkers were hunted in the 18^th century, and why there are none today. Only Dreamwalkers can access the Space, and make people die in their dreams. And I’m afraid that the original Dreamwalkers - those who discovered the power - were not a pleasant group, and their descendants were of the same disposition, hence the capture and murder of the Dreamwalkers” There was a horrified silence after this speech, all of them fully realising the power Azalea Rookwood commanded over them all. Finally, Harry broke the silence. “Professor Dumbledore, is there any way to stop Rookwood entering Hermione’s dreams?” he asked, his hand tightening on hers. Dumbledore nodded. “Yes, there is a spell to block a Dreamwalker out of your dreams. It is a simple charm that must be performed every night before you sleep. I suggest that all of you perform it, I certainly will be” he said with a smile. “The charm is ‘durma livremente’. all you have to do is point your wand at your pillow and say those words. Now” he said, looking at Hermione “it seems that Miss Rookwood has taken an interest in you Hermione, and I’m afraid that it is not safe for you to be out of school anymore. I suggest that you stay at school on Hogsmeade weekends, and do not leave the grounds for any reason. Azalea Rookwood is an exceptionally intelligent witch, and if would not do to underestimate her. I believe that she would not hesitate to turn up in the middle of Hogsmeade to reach you.” he looked at her sternly. “I do hope you agree with me Miss Granger?” Hermione looked at him wide-eyed and nodded her head. “Of course professor. I won’t leave the school grounds for any reason. I promise.” she said, meaning every word. If Azalea Rookwood was anywhere near her, she’d run a mile rather than have to look into those cold blue eyes of hers again. Tonks patted her arm and smiled reassuringly at her. “Don’t worry Hermione, it’ll be ok, she can’t come anywhere near you in Hogwarts, you know its protected from dark witches and wizards.” she said. Hermione nodded, she was safe at Hogwarts.

Duelling Club and Midnight Meetings

Hermione and Harry walked through the corridors back to the Gryffindor common room in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. oh god Hermione thought how is this happening to me? And Harry isn’t talking to me! He must be really mad that I didn’t tell him before. she sighed and glanced at Harry, walking a little apart from her, a worried expression on his face. “Harry… I am sorry you know…about not telling you before…please don’t be mad at me anymore. I really am sorry.” she said, watching him. He stopped mid-stride and looked at her in surprise.

“Me? Mad at you? Hermione, I thought you were mad at me about shouting at you earlier. I -” he stopped when two Ravenclaw third years passed them, staring at him and Hermione and whispering together. He looked around then grabbed her hand and pulled her into an empty classroom, ignoring her startled protests. He put his arms around her and she instantly felt the rift between them evaporating. “I wasn’t mad at you in the first place anyway, I was mad at Rookwood for stalking you like this.” he said in her ear. Hermione snorted “Stalking me? I wouldn’t call it that. Annoying me more like. Scaring me. I wonder what she wants anyway. Why me Harry? What could she possibly want with me?” she said, hugging him harder.

Harry didn’t have an answer for her. He didn’t know why Rookwood asked Hermione to join her, unless it was to get to him…but then why didn’t she just come into his dreams? He ruled out that possibility. There was no reason Rookwood would want to kill him really, it was Voldemort who thought his existence a personal insult and tried to kill him at least once a year, and Azalea Rookwood was totally separate from Voldemort, Snape had made that clear when he reported on Voldemort’s meeting with Rookwood and the offer he extended to her. Harry was still vaguely amazed that he had been allowed to know that piece of information, Dumbledore now seemed willing to fill him in on a lot more since the summer. Well, on things about him anyway, he still had no idea what kind of things most of the Order got up to.

Hermione loosened her hold on him and stepped back. She sighed and made a face “I think we’ve missed enough lessons today, we’ve got Defence against the Dark Arts after lunch. We missed potions this morning, Snape’s going to enjoy giving us a week’s worth of detentions for it.” she said with a scowl. Harry grinned at her. “You look cute when you do that.” he said, then kissed her.

Hermione joined Lavender heading towards the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom. She had left Harry in the great hall, talking quidditch with Seamus and Dean. Lavender smiled at her. “We’ve got professor Weasley as well today haven’t we?” she asked. Hermione nodded. Usually on Thursday afternoons they had professor Tonks, but today they both wanted to speak to the class. Hermione and Lavender walked into the room and went to their seats, Hermione next to Harry and Lavender with Parvati at the front.

Bill Weasley stood at the front of the room, Tonks sitting on the edge of the desk, her hair black with electric blue streaks today. “Good afternoon class.” Bill started “Today we want to run an idea past you and get your feedback. We were talking about this the other day, and decided that the lessons that you are getting this year are not enough.” Bill’s voice took on a serious note “You all know about Azalea Rookwood, but few of you can really comprehend what the rise of a new Dark witch could mean. you have all seen the effect of her attack on the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of the school year. That should give you an idea of what she is capable of. So we have come up with an idea that allows us to get through the Ministry curriculum that we have to teach you, and also actually teach you useful things that you will actually need in the real world.” he finished, the class muttering agreement t his last comment. Tonks stood up and continued where Bill left off. “So we came up with the idea of a duelling club. A set time every week when students in fifth year and above can learn new spells and practice old ones. I think that it is extremely important for all of you to learn how to fight because, although we wish is wasn’t so, there are Dark wizards and witches again, and you must know how to protect yourselves. You must know.” she said, driving home each word. Harry leaned across and muttered in Hermione’s ear “She sounds like a younger, female version of Moody.”

Bill spent the rest of the lesson teaching them about various blocking spells and magical defences. As they were all packing up, her called out “Anyone who is interested in joining the duelling club please write down your name on a slip of parchment and give it to me before you leave. And spread the word, we want as many people as possible.”

Harry packed up his books and scribbled his name on a spare bit of parchment and took it up to the desk. He was just turning toward the door when someone knocked his shoulder and pushed roughly past. Harry looked around and saw Ron disappearing through the door. “Still not forgiven you yet then Harry?” Tonks asked, looking thoughtfully after Ron. Bill looked up from counting the slips of parchment and snorted. “Don’t worry about it, he’ll be ok. He just needs to get himself a girl.” he said, grinning. Tonks slapped his arm playfully. “Is that all you ever think about? Honestly! Men!” she said, winking at Hermione. Hermione exchanged glances with Harry and grinned. Tonks and Bill seemed to be getting on very well recently. They said goodbye and quickly left before Tonks or Bill could ask why they were both grinning like loons.

~*~*~*~

Word spread about the duelling club, and soon it seemed that everyone in fifth, sixth and seventh year would be going. It was decided that the first meeting would be held on Saturday afternoon because there was no quidditch that weekend. Hermione was really looking forward to the first meeting, and couldn’t wait to learn new spells and practise duelling with other people.

On Friday evening she was looking over her notes, making sure that she had all the spells memorised when an owl flew in through the open window and landed on her bed. Hermione untied the parchment from its leg and unrolled it. She recognised the untidy scrawl and smiled. Harry she thought. He had written:

Hermione, meet me tonight at the Quidditch Pitch at midnight. don’t ask - it’s a surprise!

Hermione smiled and wrote back, saying that she would, but it better be worth it. She attached the note to the owl’s leg and it flew off to deliver the reply. Hermione spent a while longer reading her notes, then pulled on a jumper and jeans and put her wand up her sleeve then went to meet Harry.

She managed to get out of school without being seen, and made her way to the quidditch pitch. She walked onto the pitch and looked around. It was dark and silent, and he wasn’t there. The changing room entrance caught her eye - the door was ajar. She pushed it open the rest of the way and walked in. She looked around the door and saw something move in the shadows next to the lockers. She moved forward, small smile on her lips. What was her surprise?

Suddenly someone grabbed her from behind and she yelled in surprise. A hand quickly went over her mouth and someone shoved her roughly into the wall. She fell and pulled out her wand, only to have it snatched off her by a second person. She looked around wildly, but could only see the shadowy figures of three people closing in on her. She saw a gap between them and ran for the door. She was grabbed again and this time someone tied a thick piece of cloth around her mouth to stop her making a noise. “Stop wriggling little girl or we’ll have to make you stop!” a voice hissed in her ear. She elbowed the source of the voice and he grunted in response, loosening his grip. She kicked the shins of the other person holding her and managed to struggle out of his grasp and for one hopeful second she was heading for the open door. She unexpectedly tripped over an outstretched foot and found herself flat on the floor. She could hear them laughing quietly as they hauled her up by her arms. Tears slid down her face, her eyes frantically searching for a way to escape. “Aw don’t cry little girl.” that same voice whispered behind her. She kicked her leg backwards and had the small satisfaction of hearing the man curse and swear behind her before something came crashing down on her head, then all she knew was blinding pain as she sank into oblivion…

Hey guys, very sorry about the long delay posting this chapter!! Its been awhile I know, but I got there eventually! Hope u like it. Please review and tell me what you think! Enjoy!

Missing

Harry woke up on Saturday morning as the first birds called out the opening notes of the dawn chorus. He sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes before putting on his glasses and yawning widely. He reluctantly got out of bed and pulled on his quidditch robes, poking Dean and Seamus awake in the process. He left one of the others to wake up Ron and picked up his firebolt and went down to the common room to warm himself by the fire and wait for the others.

The Gryffindor team had begun practicing on Thursday evenings and the less popular time of dawn every Saturday and Sunday, unless there was a match later in the day. Since Harry had become captain there had been a lot of changes to the team, and a lot of vigorous training that made this year’s Gryffindor team one of the best the school had ever seen., despite protests from players about the high standards Harry made them adhere to.

When the team were all huddled by the fire in the common room, Harry led them out to the quidditch pitch. They first went to the changing room, as Harry wanted to show them a new manoeuvre he had devised the previous day. He strode into the room, intending to go to the captain’s office and get the flip chart he had been working on. He stopped short when he pushed open the changing room door, causing the other team members to bump into him from behind and jostle around for a better look over his shoulder. He walked into the room, looking around in disbelief. He heard the surprised murmurs behind him as he spun around in a slow circle, surveying the damage.

The whole room was totally wrecked. Three of the floor-to-ceiling lockers had crashed down onto the tiled floor, cracking the tiles where they fell. The door of one of the upright lockers was hanging on its hinges, its contents spilled on the floor in a sticky mess of energy drinks and spare robes. Seamus came to stand beside Harry “Looks like someone really messed this place up. Reckon there was a fight in here?” he suggested, staring at the mess in front of him. Harry shock his head. “Like who? No-one uses this room other than us” he said doubtfully then turned to the rest of the team “Anyone any good at cleaning charms?” he asked hopefully. Lavender Brown’s little sister, a second-year called Hazel, who was an amazingly good chaser, squeezed between Ron and Dean and walked up to Harry. She beamed up at him “I’m good at cleaning. My sister always makes me do her share of the housework as well as mine.” she said, wrinkling her nose. Harry grinned at her. “Great. You wouldn’t mind…?” he asked, giving her his best smile.

~*~*~*~

After quidditch practice Harry sneaked into the prefects bathroom. He had persuaded Hermione earlier that year to tell him the password, and he was very glad that he had. He washed off all the dirt and sweat before changing into his usual weekend clothes of jeans and a thick jumper, then set off towards the great hall, hoping to find Hermione still at breakfast.

He looked down the Gryffindor table but couldn’t see her. He sat down next to Neville, feeling slightly disappointed that she hadn’t waited for him. No doubt she was at the library. Neville smiled cheerily at him. “Oh hello Harry. Do you know where Hermione is? No?” he sighed and his face fell. “I really need help with my Transfiguration essay, or it’ll take me all day, probably all weekend! I can’t get it right! Professor McGonagall said she’d put me in detention if I didn’t get more than a ‘P’. I can’t do it.” he moaned, close to panicking when he learned that Hermione wasn’t around. Harry took pity on the him, Neville had got a ‘P’ for the last essay, and a ‘D’ for the one before that, which was an improvement on his previous ‘T’s. Harry was never quite sure how he managed to fail so spectacularly. “Listen, Neville, I don’t know where Hermione is, but she helped me with mine on Thursday night, so I think it’s right. If you like I could lend you it?” he said, but seeing the look on Neville’s face hastily added “Actually, I’m not doing anything this morning, so I could go through it with you.” he added. Neville beamed at him. “Thanks Harry! I really have no idea about any of it, it’d take me days to do it by myself. I’ll meet you in the library!” Neville said and hurried off. Harry sighed and ate his bacon, mood rapidly declining at the thought of having to spend a whole morning explaining transfiguration to Neville Longbottom. Well, he thought hopefully, if Hermione’s in the library maybe I could slip away.

It took Harry a lot longer than he thought to finish Neville’s essay. No help from Hermione, she wasn’t in the library, so it was up to Harry to do his best to help Neville. The boy seemed to have taken in nothing in the whole five years of transfiguration lessons! It was well past lunch that Harry finally had some time to himself, so he decided to find Hermione. He hadn’t seen her all day, but that wasn’t surprising really, as he had been cooped up in the library all morning. He entered the common room and looked around, but couldn’t see her. He spotted Parvati and Lavender in a corner, reading a magazine and giggling at an article. “Hi, um, have you two seen Hermione? I can’t find her. Yes, I’ve tried the library.” Parvati just shrugged and continued reading. Lavender looked up thoughtfully. “Hmm, well I haven’t seen Ginny either” she told him “so I should think they’re together. I was trying to find Ginny earlier, but I suppose they’ve gone off to have a girly chat.” she supplied. Harry thanked her then went up to his room, deciding to get some rest before the first Duelling club meeting started. I’ll see her there he thought god help me if I interrupt a girly chat, I’ll stay well away.

The great hall was packed, nearly everyone from the upper years of the school had turned up for the first meeting. Harry stood near the front with Seamus, Dean, Neville, and Ron - who still wasn’t talking to him. Tonks walked onto raised dais in the middle of the great hall, followed by Bill Weasley. Silence fell as they stood patiently waiting for all the attention to focus on the stage. Tonks smiled brightly at all the expectant students looking up at her. “Hi. Welcome to this first session of the duelling club. You all know what the aim of this club is - to brush up on attacking and defensive spells and to improve your duelling skills. Today we are going to start by going over spells that help to block you from outside influence, for example, people influencing your dreams….” Tonks went on, and winked at Harry. Harry grinned back. He thought it was a brilliant idea. Getting people to guard their dreams, but without telling them the real reason for it. If they knew, a lot of them would probably panic.

The two hours passed in a mixture of learning new blocking spells, and practicing the few that they already knew. Harry was partnered with Dean for the lesson, as Hermione still hadn’t showed up. After the club had finished, and Tonks had told everyone to practice guarding their sleep every night, Harry made his way back to the common room, determined to find out where Hermione was. He ran into Ginny in the entrance hall, coming from the direction of the dungeons. “Ginny!” he called, hurrying over to her. She jumped and turned around, and for some reason went bright red. “Where’s Hermione? Did she go to duelling club with you?” he asked, quite annoyed that Hermione hadn’t told him that she wasn’t going with him. Ginny looked confused. “Err no Harry, I wasn’t at, um, duelling club. Sorry.” she said, still bright red. She turned to walk away, but Harry called her back. “So you haven’t been with her? You haven’t seen her? Where were you?” he said frowning. “Why were you in the dungeons?” Ginny went crimson. “I haven’t seen her since yesterday. And I was, ah, that is, um..” she trailed off, looking at someone behind Harry. He looked over his shoulder to see who she was looking at and saw Malfoy emerging from the entrance to the dungeons, glancing at Ginny then walking into the great hall. Harry turned back to her and raised his eyebrows. “Malfoy? Ugh” he said, but to Ginny’s obvious relief didn’t comment on it any more. “So you haven’t seen her either? Then where is she?” he said. Ginny just shook her head, beginning to look slightly worried.

They went back to the common room and found Lavender. “She wasn’t with Ginny, she hasn’t seen her all day. When did you last see her?” Harry asked anxiously. Lavender frowned. “I saw her last night, just before she went to meet up with you. She wasn’t in her bed this morning, so I presumed she was still with you…” she said, eyes sparkling with the promise of gossip. Harry frowned. “What are you talking about?” he asked, confused. “I didn’t meet up with her last night.” lavender just stared at him then seemed to decide that he wasn’t lying. “You sent her an owl last night” she said slowly, “Saying you wanted to meet her at midnight at the quidditch pitch. Very romantic I thought!” she added grinning. Harry just looked at her and shook him head. Then the images crashed into his mind in quick succession. The overturned lockers, the robes all over the floor. Seamus’ suggestion there was a fight…. Rookwood’s threats. Hermione’s dream. He turned around and sprinted from the common room, heading towards Dumbledore’s office.

In Azalea’s Manor

Hermione woke up slowly and opened her eyes. She closed them again quickly as the pain in her head doubled. She groaned softly then instantly regretted it as the vibration sent waves of pain through her head. She wondered why she was so cold and why it was so painful to move. She decided not to attempt sitting up right now.

Slowly it all came back to her, the note from Harry, the empty quidditch pitch, the shadowy figures in the locker room, the struggle, the sudden pain as a heavy object came down on her head.

Without opening her eyes she analysed her immediate surroundings. She was laying on a hard mattress with a thin sheet covering her to her shoulders. Her arm was resting against a cold stone wall and the air was icy cold. A cold draught was washing over her that her thin sheet and jumper could not keep from chilling her to the bone. She decided not to risk opening her eyes yet, she was still trying to ward off the pain in her head.

“You’re not fooling anyone you know” a voice said conversationally beside her, cutting right into the centre of her headache. “I know you’re awake, so there’s no point pretending to be asleep.”

Hermione mumbled “Where am I?”, still not opening her eyes, preferring not to see the owner of the voice, although she thought she knew who it was, and really hoped she was wrong.

“Where are you?” the voice said, sounding cheery. “Now that would be telling, wouldn’t it? What matters is you’re here, where ‘here’ is isn’t any of your concern really is it? It won’t make a difference if you know or not. It isn’t like you’re going to be going anywhere, or telling anyone where you are, so what does it matter?”

Hermione frowned. “All the same, I’d still like to know.”

The owner of the voice let out an exasperated sigh. “Lucky for you I’m in a charitable mood.” the voice said darkly “Or you wouldn’t be feeling quite so curious right now, more hurting I’d say.”

Hermione frowned, sensing rather than seeing her captor smiling. She opened her eyes slightly and her suspicions were confirmed. Looking back at her, grinning a perfectly evil grin, was Azalea Rookwood.

“Welcome back Hermione. Glad to have you with us again. I’ve been so looking forward to finally meeting with you.” She told her, voice like icy steel. Hermione shivered. “Oh, are you cold? Sorry, I forget that people feel these things” she said, waving her wand at the fireplace in the opposite wall, causing a fire to spring to life. Hermione sat up slowly and leaned against the wall, knees drawn up to her chest., letting the new heat wash over her. “What do you mean? you can’t feel the cold?” she asked the older witch curiously.

Azalea gave Hermione her wolfish smile again and laughed. “Nope. My nerve endings do not reach the outer layers of skin. I can’t feel anything. Cold, heat, pain.” she grinned again. “Quite an advantage don’t you think?”

Hermione shivered again and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Yes, I suppose it is.” she said dully. She stared at the flames for a long time, a thought worming its way into her consciousness. “How did you kidnap me?” she asked.

Azalea raised an eyebrow at her. “They sent a fake note from Potter asking to meet you, then knocked you out. don’t tell me you forgot?” she said slowly, as if Hermione was being very dim.

Hermione shook her head. “That’s not what I mean… I mean how did you do it?” she asked, and seeing Azalea still looking at her as though she was daft, she continued “There are so many protection spells around Hogwarts. How did you get in? and who are ‘they’?” she added, frowning.

Azalea’s blue eyes lit up with glee. She laughed cruelly. “Oh that was the best thing! You’d be impressed my dear. I certainly was!” she said, cruel mirth evident in her voice. “As you are aware, witches or wizards who try to enter Hogwarts grounds with the intention of harming anyone inside, will not get past the gates. Numerous spells will be activated and I’d find myself in a lot of trouble very quickly. Of course, I couldn’t use muggles, because they can’t even see Hogwarts, you know they just see a pile of old bricks… so I thought to myself; who could get inside Hogwarts and not attract the protective spells?” she grinned “Then it came to me. So simple! Squibs! Magical people, but with little or no magical ability at all, so they’re not detected! All they had to do was get that note sent to you and grab your wand before you had chance to use it. Simple!”

Hermione was amazed. She had never felt in danger while around people without magic, as she viewed them as easy to deal with and quite harmless really. She realised how stupid that belief was now. How stupid she was. Azalea watched it all cross Hermione’s face, saw the hopeless look in her eyes. “Aw don’t beat yourself up about it girl. Wasn’t your fault, everyone is caught by surprise sometimes!” she laughed and walked out the door behind her, leaving Hermione alone in the empty room. She sighed and tried to be positive about her situation. At least she left the fire burning.

She scowled. Is that the best you can do?

Azalea left Hermione’s room and walked along the passageway to the main hall. She smiled to herself. She had done it, she had finally got her here. Now she could fully activate the Staff of Amaror and then do whatever she pleased. She walked into her brother’s old study and looked out of the window at the surrounding countryside of his manor.

She knew what she would do first when she got the Staff to work properly. Kill Voldemort’s supporters one by one. Starting with Lucius Malfoy. Or maybe her father. She hadn’t decided yet. She had enough sense to not go after Voldemort himself, no matter how much she hated his arrogant ways. She knew about the prophecy with Harry Potter. She knew that he would kill Voldemort, or Voldemort would kill him. She wasn’t fussed as to the outcome. She’d just deal with whoever came out alive.

A knock at the door distracted her from her musings “What?!” she demanded. The door creaked open slowly and one of her men peered round the door hesitantly before deciding it was safe to come in. “M…M…Miss Roo…Rookwood…I…er…”

She glared at the man and picked up the Staff from where it was propped against her desk. She swung it at him and it hit him across the jaw with enough force to knock out a few teeth. She hoped it had. He winced in pain. “Well if you want to say something, say it! don’t just stand around wasting my time!” she shrieked at the terrified man cowering in front of her.

His hand flew to his face and he glared at her. He suddenly threw himself at her, finally snapping after weeks of intimidation and pain. He screamed at her “I’m so damn tired of the way you treat us! You crazy bitch! What’s your problem?” he yelled as he knocked her to the ground, snatching the wand out of her hand and tossing it away.

Azalea wasn’t expecting the sudden outburst. It took her completely by surprise. She thought it was very amusing though, someone actually had enough backbone to stand up to her. Looks like they weren’t all spineless idiots. Her amusement evaporated fast when he knocked her wand away and hit her hard. Although she didn’t feel the pain it still annoyed her that he dared. She hit him back, causing him to fly across the room and hit the opposite wall. She laughed as she got up and moved towards him, saw the fear in his eyes as her wand rose to her hand. Wandless magic was meant to be very difficult. Not for her though. She walked slowly over to him, taking her time. “Oh dear” she said softly “Looks like I’m stronger than you thought. That’s one advantage of being so very magical you know.” A cruel smile slowly spread across her face. She crouched down next to him and looked straight into his terrified eyes. She spoke quietly, slowly, making sure he digested every single word. “You will die for what you did. But don’t get your hopes up, I’m going to have some fun first.” she laughed softly. “You are going to feel every moment of this, I’ll make sure of it.”

She dragged him by his hair down the stairs, past her men. “An example to you all” she called to them as she strode by. She took him to the main hall and with a wave of her wand tied him by his thumbs to the same chandelier that she had hung her brother from, laughing at his cries of pain and pleas for help. She called up to him “I may be crazy, but I’m a damn sight better than you right now, wouldn’t you say?” she asked sweetly. “Don’t worry, I’ll bring you down after a day or two, then the fun will really begin. Oh, and don’t scream too loud will you? Even I get bored of the sound after a couple of hours.”

Scrying

The Order held a meeting first thing on Sunday morning at Hogwarts. Only a select few members were there as it was such short notice. Only the people who Hermione’s disappearance affected most were asked to come, and those that could be the greatest help. Harry, Ron and Ginny were the only students present, each insisting that they be a part of it. The meeting was held in the Room of Requirement, which was Harry’s suggestion. It was the only place in the school that was big enough to hold the Order members and stay private.

Dumbledore started the meeting by explaining to the horrified witches and wizards in front of him about Hermione’s disappearance from the school and the faked note from Harry, asking her to meet him at the quidditch pitch. Harry sat through this with a blank expression on his face, staring vacantly at the opposite wall. He was slumped in his chair, feeling totally hollow and useless. He had had a sleepless night, thoughts bouncing around inside his head, not allowing him to sleep. He couldn’t help thinking that he could have prevented this. If he had realised on Saturday morning that Hermione wasn’t in school, this meeting could have happened a lot faster, they would already be searching for her by now. And why didn’t he think to use the Marauder’s Map? He should have looked at it yesterday morning to see where Hermione was! Now she was gone, and he was certain that he knew who took her. Who else could it be? Rookwood he thought, rage burning through him as the image of that beautiful, cold, cunning witch came into his head. The anger coursed through him until threatening to explode. How could he have let this happen?!

He jumped as a load of books thudded to the floor next to his chair. He quickly picked them up and put them back on the bookshelf along with all the other books about finding lost objects that had magically appeared when they walked into the room. He sat back down and realised that almost everyone was looking at him. He ignored them. He knew why they were staring - the books falling to the ground had not been coincidental, it was caused by wandless magic. Caused by him. He had got so angry that he had once again made things happen that he had no control over. It had happened before; the lock on the cupboard at number 4 springing open when he needed his trunk, and of course the incident with Aunt Marge. He just stared moodily at the wall, not caring how amazed the others were at what he had done.

Kingsley was asking Dumbledore questions about Hermione’s dream so Dumbledore had to explain Dreamwalking to them all. Harry stopped listening and scanned the titles of the books, looking for something, anything, that could help to find Hermione. His eyes rested on a leather bound volume ‘Of spying and scrying’ By Mandy Muggelwort. He took it off the shelf and opening it carefully, the edges of pages crumbling under his fingers. He chose a page at random and read the title of the chapter he had found; ‘Scrying for beginners’. He skimmed over the page, then read it again more carefully. It seemed to suggest that by looking into a reflective surface, like water or a mirror, you could cast a spell and be able to see an image of someone far away. Harry read the whole chapter and made sure he had understood it completely before raising his head and looking up at Dumbledore. “Professor?” he called out, interrupting a sobbing Mrs Weasley, who was in the middle of question about how the kidnappers could have gotten into the school grounds. Dumbledore turned to him, eyebrows raised questioningly. “Sorry to interrupt Professor.” Harry continued “But I think I’ve found a way to find Hermione.” he went on to explain about scrying. He finished his explanation and waited for Dumbledore’s response.

It was Snape, however, who replied first. “Scrying will not show you where she is, Potter. It will merely show us Granger and a limited area around her” he said derisively. “It will not show you her location. What an utterly useless person you are…” he trailed off.

Harry glared at him. “Well actually, professor, scrying would show us the condition of her health wouldn’t it? So at least we’d know that much. And if we saw even a small area of her surroundings it could help narrow down the search.” he replied. Snape just glared hatefully back at him and remained silent.

The next half an hour was spent discussing scrying, involving a lot of extracts from books being read out and doubts being voiced. Finally it was decided that Dumbledore would cast the spell, and the others would watch to see if it worked.

The next hour was spent in preparation for the complex ritual of scrying. Muggelwort seemed to have a liking of obscure objects and ingredients and candle-lit rituals as a build up to the actual spell. Dumbledore, with Snape’s help, distilled the process substantially, cutting through the pre-scrying meditation and totally irrelevant potions that Muggelwort was so fond of. By the end of the hour everything was ready. The assembled witches and wizards cleared a large area at one end of the room and Molly placed a cup of water in the centre of the space. They stood in silence as Dumbledore spoke the first incantation and pointed his wand at the cup. The water within it rose up and spiralled from the cup and into the air, increasing in volume as it spun. Dumbledore made a shimmering wall out of the water, making it stretch to fill one end of the room from floor to ceiling, wall to wall.

Harry watched as Dumbledore began the next complicated spell. Suddenly, the whole wall of water turned as black as night. Harry saw an image begin to materialize in the centre, then slowly enlarge. He saw the figure of a person huddled against a stone wall, hands wrapped around their legs, the person’s head resting on it’s knees. As the picture grew larger and brighter, Harry could recognise the bushy hair, the pretty face. His heart tightened painfully when he saw the tears falling down her face, cutting channels through the dirt on her cheeks. “Hermione” he whispered, tears welling up in his own eyes. Hermione looked up suddenly, almost as thought she could sense him watching her. “Harry?” she mouthed. She suddenly turned her head towards the door, fear dancing in her eyes.

The image abruptly winked out, and the wall of water exploded, drenching them all instantly.

~*~*~

The door of her room burst open, and Azalea Rookwood stalked in, eyes blazing. The feeling that Harry was watching her quickly disappeared and she felt the hopelessness overwhelm her again. Azalea circled the room, muttering spells as she walked. She abruptly turned to face Hermione, a dark glint in her eyes, a sneer marring her beauty. “That fool Dumbledore will have a hard time doing that again!” she said angrily. “Whatever he was using to scry for you will have just exploded in his face!” she informed Hermione. “Oh I do hope it was glass.” she added, then grinned suddenly. “A shard of glass might have pierced his heart, or sliced open an artery…you never know…” she said hopefully, face brightening at the prospect. Then seeing Hermione’s horrified look she added “Oh come on! You can’t say you actually like the fool?” she asked incredulously.

Hermione replied angrily “Professor Dumbledore is a great wizard!”

Azalea just yawned widely. “Yeah yeah. Well I gotta run, I was in the middle of something before I was so rudely interrupted… I’ll be back later though, there’s something I need your help with.” Azalea said, a cruel smile playing her lips.

Hermione sighed with relief as the door slammed shut again. She was not look forward to what ever Rookwood wanted her ‘help’ with, by the look on her face and the way she said it, it seemed like Azalea was really happy about something, which meant that what ever it was, it couldn’t be good. Not for Hermione anyway.

The Staff of Amaror

It had been a week now. A whole week. And still nothing. The Order and the Ministry had been searching for Hermione the whole time, but she seemed to have disappeared without a trace. Not that that was much of a surprise, Harry expected no less from Azalea Rookwood, she was far to clever to give her location away. Harry would have given up hope if it wasn’t for the image of Hermione he had seen through Dumbledore’s scrying. But that was a week ago now, and he had no idea what had happened to her in that time, he just hoped that Rookwood would tell them what she wanted so they could hurry up and get Hermione back safe at Hogwarts. If only there was a way he could make sure she was ok, if only he could just see her, if only for a little while.

Dumbledore had once again seemed to read Harry’s mind when he called him into his office on the first Monday after Hermione had gone. He had sat silent for a while, his blue gaze piercing right into Harry’s thoughts. “You must not try to scry for her Harry” he had said gently. “I do not know what Miss Rookwood would do if you tried. I believe that she will have put up some sort of magical defence by now against magical means of searching” he had told Harry.

Harry was quite amazed that Dumbledore had known what he was going to try to do, but then Dumbledore had always seemed to know almost everything. Harry spend the week in a daze, thinking about Hermione all the time, dreaming about her every night. Often waking in a cold sweat from nightmares that he wished he could forget, but which haunted his waking hours.

The rest of the school seemed unusually subdued, and the teachers all seemed distracted, often trailing off in the middle of a sentence, glancing over to where Hermione usually sat, hand in air, ready and eager to answer every question. It was like Hermione was already dead, they were all imagining the worst. The only good thing in that awful week was that Ron had started talking to Harry again, he had seen how stupid he had been, and apologised over and over again until Harry finally spoke to him. But deep inside the dark places of his heart he knew that he would trade all of Ron’s new forgiveness to get Hermione back. Every time he thought about it he squirmed with guilt and felt sad that Ron’s friendship to him had become so distant in the past few weeks that he could even think about trading it in for anything.

~*~*~

Hermione woke up shivering. The fire in the hearth had long since gone out. She had counted about six days, maybe seven, that she had been here. She hadn’t seen Azalea since the scrying incident, which was making her very nervous. She had seen no living things at all since then, unless you counted the spiders. Her food magically appeared on a little wooden table by her bed, three times a day. That was the only thing she had to go on for the time, in her windowless room there was nothing to indicate the passing of days and nights. A bare bulb hung from the ceiling, offering meagre light. A wooden door to the side of the fireplace held a toilet and sink. No shower, no mirror, no soap. Hermione had nothing to do other than pace her room, trying to keep warm. She thought a lot about her parents, and if they knew that she was gone, and about Harry, hoping that he wasn’t going to do anything stupid to try to rescue her, although she dreamt every night that he came bursting through the door and carried her away…

She sighed. Like that’s gonna happen! Hermione thought hopelessly. There was a pop and a small plate of crusty bread with butter appeared on the wooden table beside her, and another pop brought her a glass of water. Hermione sighed again and picked up the bread and started to eat it slowly, savouring each mouthful. It would be hours before her next meal and she wanted to make each morsel last as long as possible.

Azalea stalked into the Manor and proceeded quickly to her study. She was in a bad mood. Voldemort, of all people, had decided to come and find her. He sent those stupid lapdogs of his, his Death Eaters. She had to give him credit though, he had actually found her, which is more than Dumbledore and his ninnies had managed to do.

The Death Easters had appeared three days ago, from the hills at the back of the Manor. They attacked in the night, ten of them. They managed to kill fourteen of her people in the Manor grounds without losing a single one of their number. They had actually reached the Manor undetected! But once inside, that was a different story.

They had entered the building through the kitchen passage at the back, finding two wizards on guard duty. Her men had heard Voldemort’s clowns entering the passage, so they alerted everyone awake and activated the traps along the passage. It was bloody to say the least. Only three Death Eaters escaped. They ran right into the main hall, and came face to face with Azalea herself.

They started shouting spells at her silent form. She just laughed wickedly and faded into invisibility. She decided to play with them before killing them. She slowly circled them, magically tripping them over, whispering in their ear, laughing softly behind them.

She killed the blonde woman first. With one spell she ripped her apart, while the other Death Eaters watched, transfixed by the horrific sight in front of them. The second she killed by busting all the tiny capillaries in his body, causing blood to fly everywhere, drenching the final terrified Death Eater.

Azalea laughed cruelly as the Death Eater looked around fearfully, wand shaking in his hand. She decided to give this one the same treatment as her dear brother received.

But that was three days ago, and since then she had been busy clearing up the mess her so-called followers had created. It seemed that one of the Death Eaters had escaped, apparated away before he could be killed.

Azalea was furious.

Since the extermination of the Death Eater rats three days ago she had wasted valuable time tracking down the escaped one. Finally she had found him hiding in a grubby room in a muggle pub in Coventry. She had no idea how many people he had told about her whereabouts before she found him, and he was no use to her now, he killed himself as soon as he saw her.

She was back in her Manor now, sitting at her desk in the study. Her eyes wondered over the assortment of dark artefacts in the room and came to rest on the Staff of Amaror.

She smiled slightly.

It was time.

Hermione was just finishing her bread when the door of her room banged open. She jumped, sending the glass of water crashing to the floor. She looked up at Azalea, leaning nonchalantly against the doorframe. She smiled wolfishly at Hermione’s terrified gaze.

“Hermione. Come. There is something I need your help with” she said cheerfully. Hermione swallowed and stood up, following Azalea into the passage way.

She looked around as they walked. This was the first time she had been allowed out of the room. They were walking down a long stone corridor lit by flickering torches. Hermione guessed they were in some kind of basement, the walls were damp and there were small puddles of water on the floor.

“Now I wouldn’t wander off if I were you Hermione, we don’t want any nasty accidents happening.” Azalea advised and walked onwards, heeled boots echoing of the flagged stone floor.

They passed a few side corridors but did not turn down any. They soon came to a warn and chipped stone stairway and proceeded up it to a heavy wooden door. Azalea pushed it open and Hermione gasped.

She stood blinking in the light. The room she was in was massive, a great stone hall. She looked around and with a jolt realised where she was. It was Hector Rookwood’s Manor. She was sure of it. She had seen this same hall in the photo in the Daily Prophet in the article about Rookwood’s murder.

Azalea stood close by, arms folded, tapping her foot impatiently against the marble floor. She raised an eyebrow. “When you’re finished gawking…” she walked swiftly up the staircase at the end of the hall and Hermione followed. She put any thoughts of escape behind her when she saw the amount of wizards in the place. The Manor was huge, and each passage way was occupied by at least four wizards, all in blood red robes. They stared indifferently at Hermione as she and Azalea walked by, like they were looking right through her, it sent shivers up Hermione’s spine.

They finally stopped in front of a carved wooden door and Azalea muttered a password and the door swung open. Hermione stepped inside and looked around, stunned. “Quite a collection” she said weakly, gazing wide eyed at the numerous dark artefacts that lined the walls and tables of the room.

Azalea smiled slightly. “Yes, I think so. My brother was storing them, hiding them away so I wouldn’t get my hands on them” she walked over to her desk and picked up the Staff of Amaror. Hermione eyed it warily. Azalea’s smile widened. “Hermione do you know what this it? Yes? Good. And I’m sure you’re aware of what it does? Ooh very good.” Azalea said. She walked over to Hermione slowly, Staff in hand.

“But” she continued softly “I bet you don’t know how to activate it do you?” Hermione shook her head, backing away, eyes on the Staff. Azalea grinned. “Well I do. You see, to activate this Staff, the blood of an innocent person is needed” she locked she eyes with Hermione’s, sending a chill through the younger witch at the ice in that gaze. “I guess you qualify.”

Hermione stood there, paralysed with fear. She couldn’t move. “Why me?” she finally whispered.

Azalea laughed softly. “Because, Hermione, you are innocent, and good, and pure. You spend your life trying to keep Harry Potter alive. You value his life above your own. You are selfless. Of course, there are quite a few people who are” she said “But you’re different. You have power Hermione. Power! I believe that that power will increase the power of the Staff, and therefore of myself. So I need your blood. Do you mind?” she said sweetly and laughed at the look on Hermione’s face.

Hermione suddenly ran for the door, frantic. She froze midst stride, arms and legs snapping to her sides. Azalea had her in a full body bind. Tears leaked out the corners of her eyes and she kept thinking the same thing over and over. I’m going to die….

Azalea’s wand tip glowed bright white. She ripped the sleeve of Hermione’s jumper and exposed her arm. She undid the body bind. “Move, and I’ll kill you.” she informed Hermione coldly. “This is going to hurt” she added.

She set her wand tip against Hermione’s arm and sliced through a section of skin.

Hermione screamed.

Blood poured down her arm and Azalea calmly caught it in a silver goblet. When she was done she waved she wand, and the skin on Hermione’s arm sewed itself back together. Hermione collapsed on the floor, a burning pain spreading through her body. That was no ordinary spell. Her screams subsided, unconsciousness finally came and Hermione welcomed it.

Azalea looked down at her for a long minute then turned her back and set the goblet on her desk.

After a while she nudged Hermione with her boot until she stirred. “Come on Hermione. Up. Now.” she said.

Hermione got unsteadily to her feet and staggered, leaning against the wall for support, feeling light headed. Her arm hurt terribly, although now there was no mark. She watched as Azalea took up the goblet containing her blood in one hand, and the Staff of Amaror in the other.

Azalea raised the goblet and, whispering incantations, poured Hermione’s blood over the sapphire.

Time stood still for a long moment.

Suddenly, a blinding light issued from the large sapphire and a ripple of air passed through the room. The Staff turned jet black, the sapphire glowing brightly. Hermione looked at Azalea and saw that a strange azure light surrounded her, and her eyes glowed the same blue as the Staff. A powerful wave of light suddenly radiated from the Staff and Azalea’s eyes widened. She screamed loudly. The light slammed through the room, causing everything in its path to break and fall. When it reached Hermione and she flew across the room and hit the wall. Blackness closed in, Azalea’s screams still ringing in her ears.

Escape

Hermione groaned softly and pulled herself up into a sitting position, her head spinning. She leaned heavily against the wall behind her for support. Blinking slowly, she tried to dispel the blackness that threatened to swallow her again in its unconscious embrace. Her arm was throbbing dully at her side where Azalea had sliced into her skin. Her limbs felt heavy and unresponsive, her body trying to drag her back into the escape of oblivious sleep. But Hermione refused to give in, and pulled herself to her feet, her legs reluctant to support her. She staggered slightly and bumped into an overturned table by the door.

She looked around her surroundings with growing awareness. She had been so absorbed in trying to stay conscious that she had temporarily forgotten where she was, and what had happened. Now, looking at the devastated room, it all came back to her. The burning pain as Azalea cut her. The blood pouring over the sapphire. The brilliant blue light. And Azalea’s pain-filled screams, going on and on...

Hermione’s unsteady gaze focused on the crumpled body of Azalea Rookwood, laying unmoving by a shattered window. She crossed the room, unsteadily meandering around the debris that covered the floor. Slowly she approached her tormenter and knelt down next by her limp form, her limbs screaming in protest with every movement.

She studied Azalea’s face closely, looking for any signs of life, or an imminent return to consciousness. Seeing none, Hermione scanned the room, her eyes finally finding what she had been looking for. Her wand lay in the shattered glass of the window, and she quickly snatched it up and gripped it firmly, feeling slightly more hopeful and stronger now she finally had her wand back after weeks without it.

She turned back to Azalea and frowned slightly. Hermione wanted to get away from there right away, but her conscience stopped her. You can’t just leave her there an annoying voice in her head told her, she could be dying, or dead. Hermione hovered undecided for a long minute, looking back and forth between Azalea’s collapsed form and the door - her escape route. She let out a frustrated sigh and squatted down next to the witch. There were no visible signs that Rookwood was alive and breathing, but Hermione didn’t want to have to touch Azalea to check for a pulse so she picked up a silver goblet at her feet and held it in front of the witch’s mouth. The surface of the goblet clouded over, showing Hermione that Azalea was at least breathing, but shallowly. As she got to her feet she noticed the Staff of Amaror was still clutched tightly in Azalea’s hand. It was now pitch black, the peculiar sigils along the shaft glowing with the unsettling azure light that had surrounded both the Staff and the witch holding it as Hermione’s blood was poured over the sapphire.

Hermione hesitated before unenthusiastically stretching her hand towards the Staff, uncertain whether to pick it up or not. I can’t just leave it here! she told herself firmly and resolutely plucked it from Azalea’s unresisting hand.

She shivered at the touch of the wood. The Staff was icy-cold and smooth, as black as night. She hated to even touch such a blatantly dark object, let alone use it. But she realised that she would have to do just that. By now she had realised that she was in Hector Rookwood’s Manor, which she knew was in the middle of nowhere, so she couldn’t go to any nearby villages for help, as there were none. She also knew that the Manor was unplottable, meaning that there wasn’t much chance of anyone coming to rescue her, or happening across her accidentally. Besides, there was a good chance that it would be the Death Eaters who found her rather than the Order. She couldn’t apperate away because she was underage and hadn’t learnt yet.

So Hermione was left with two options, neither of which appealed to her. The first was to simply walk until she found a witch or wizard willing to help her, which wasn’t very likely considering the location of the Manor. She was also very aware of the fact that her body was still protesting about her wakefulness, and she knew that she was in no condition to walk for miles and miles, and she must look like a mad woman, blood all over her, hair tangled and matted.

The second option was worse, but the one Hermione grudgingly accepted that she would be forced to take.

The Staff had many powers, and she knew that it could be used to transport a witch or wizard to another location, even one that you cannot ordinarily apperate to. So Hermione knew that she would just have to figure out how to do this, and fast. With Azalea unconscious at her feet, and dozens of witches and wizards in the Manor who may or may not be in the same state, Hermione knew that she didn’t have much time. With each passing second she chanced discovery and imprisonment again, so it was now or never.

Determinedly she moved into the middle of the room, navigating around the mess of furniture, books and dark artefacts on the floor, and held the Staff firmly in one hand, her wand in the other. With one last glace as Azalea, Hermione shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She thought hard about Hogwarts, picturing the castle in her mind, and expressing her desire to be there. After a few minutes she let out a noisy breath and opened her eyes, blinking away tears. Nothing had happened, she was still stuck in Azalea Rookwood’s study, and, to her dismay, she realised that Azalea herself was stirring slightly. Hermione looked on helplessly as the powerful witch moaned softly and jumped as suddenly her eyes flew open. Hermione gasped when those blue eyes instantly focused on her, and Azalea sat bolt upright, an icy glare centred on the terrified young witch in front of her.

Hermione searched her mind desperately for a way to escape, and found herself thinking despairingly of Harry, the one thing she loved above all else. She pictured his brilliant green eyes, his messy hair. He would know what to do! How she wished she was with him now!

Suddenly she saw the sapphire atop the Staff in her hand glow with that strange blue light, and gasped in shock as cold swept abruptly through her body from the Staff and her surroundings blurred. She saw Azalea raise her wand and shout out a stunning spell, and in slow motion saw the red light rush towards her as the room bent out of shape and became transparent. Then unexpectedly she found she was standing in the middle of the Great Hall at Hogwarts at meal time and in at the same time standing in Azalea’s study, with the stunning spell still rushing towards her so slowly.

The two images overlapped and stretched and twisted and turned then, Hermione felt herself twisting and was… inverted… so much surely she would break… suddenly the world went back to its usual speed, her feet hit the floor, the red light of the stunning spell slammed into her chest, Hermione screamed and collapsed onto the floor of the Great Hall, in front of the astounded students and teachers of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

Return

Harry was sitting next to Ron at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, pushing his food around his plate, staring vacantly at his peas.

“They have a good life” he dully informed Ron, who made an uncomprehending face at him.

“Who do?”

“Peas. The peas, they have a good life” he repeated. “You know, they’re all cosy in their pod, with all the other peas, just sitting there in the field… nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to kidnap them…”

“I reckon you’ve lost it mate” Ron said, patting Harry on the shoulder. “Anyway, life wouldn’t be so good… soon they’ll be in a pan of boiling water. Still, quick death I suppose.”

Harry made a non-committing noise and continued to mash up his peas methodically with his fork, chin propped up by his hand.

The stormy evening sky reflected his mood perfectly. It had been two weeks now since Hermione had disappeared and he began to lose faith in Dumbledore’s efforts to find her. How could he help? What could he do? Harry was failing her, everyday he sat here in safe old Hogwarts Hermione was out there with her, with Rookwood. He sank further into his depressive mood. The peas would get no mercy now.

Suddenly shouts of surprise rang out from the far end of the Great Hall, causing Harry to look up from his dinner. He gasped as a figure seemed to materialise out of thin air, then vanish again, only to appear a few seconds later. Harry rose from his seat, staring wide eyed as once again the apparition appeared.

“Hermione?” he whispered, incredulous. It was Hermione, he was sure of it. “Hermione!” He shouted.

He sprinted down the length of the hall, Ron close behind. He skidded to a halt just as Hermione flickered out of sight again. Ron ran up beside him, out of breath. Harry looked around frantically, hope flaring in his eyes for the first time in days.

He turned around sharply as a scream pierced the air behind him. Suddenly Hermione was right there, sprawled on the cold stone floor, a long black staff clutched in her left hand, wand in her right. She looked as though she hadn’t washed in weeks, her jumper was shredded and her jeans torn and filthy. Her long bushy hair was matted and her face had smears of dirt all over it. And… was that blood? Harry quickly moved to her side and knelt down next to her. He was relieved to see that she was breathing, but was unconscious. The blood looked old, a dry drank stain on her jumper.

Then Dumbledore was there, and McGonagall, both looking extremely grave, but immensely relieved. They ushered the gaping students away to their respective common rooms and called for Madam Pomfrey, who came bustling in immediately. She quickly checked Hermione over, frowning slightly at a thin white scar on Hermione’s left upper arm, tutting as her eyes took in the blood. She looked up at Dumbledore.

“Just stunned I think, but it looks quite serious, I don’t think she’s eaten much for a few weeks, and she looks quite ill. Who knows what else happened to the poor girl” she murmured, eyes once again on the scar. “She needs to go straight up to the Hospital Wing” she informed Dumbledore briskly. Her eyes travelled over Harry and Ron and she frowned again. “I’m afraid she won’t be having visitors for awhile boys, Miss Granger will need plenty of rest.” she said sternly. Harry opened his mouth to argue, but thought it best to go along with it, not for a minute taking his eyes off Hermione.

Dumbledore bent close to Hermione and studied the black staff by her side. His eyes grew troubled and flicked quickly from the scar on Hermione’s arm and back to the staff, then to the sapphire atop it. He finally straightened up and waved his wand, levitating the staff so it hovered upright in the air in front of him. Harry’s eyes grew wide as he suddenly realised what it must be. “Professor…is that?…but how?…” he asked, trailing off under Dumbledore’s blue gaze.

Dumbledore nodded. “Yes Harry, this is the Staff of Amaror. I think its ah, safe, if I may use the word, to say that it has been activated.” Seeing Harry’s questioning glance he continued, “The Staff, as you are no doubt aware, has many uses, one of which is transport, even to unplottable locations. This is what Miss Granger did today I believe” he gave a tired sigh and looked towards the Marble Staircase. “You boys had better be going to bed now, its late. Minerva, will you alert the Order that Hermione has arrived back, safe. I shall inform her parents.” he continued. “And the ministry I suppose” he added with a grimace. “Minerva would you be so kind as to alert the Daily Prophet of the return of Miss Granger, and I think we should make it clear that the Ministry was not involved in her escape, no doubt they will want to take credit some how.”

Harry and Ron made their way slowly up to the Gryffindor common room, each lost in their own thoughts. When Harry climbed in through the portrait hole he was met with a torrent of questions about Hermione, none of which he answered. He pushed through to the boys staircase and took the stairs two at a time up to his dormitory, where he quickly changed into his pyjamas and got into bed. He closed his eyes, totally exhausted, both physically and emotionally. He finally realised how wound up and tense he had been for the past two weeks. Now, finally, the crushing weight of his worry for Hermione had lifted from him and he was able to sleep soundly for the first time in weeks, his mouth curved into a smile.

The next day was a Saturday, meaning no lessons. Unfortunately, an annoying voice in Harry’s head kept telling him that he should spend the day catching up on all the work he’d missed in the last two weeks. He had barely paid attention in classes and any homework he did got awful grades. As the Hospital Wing was strictly out of bounds, he had nothing to do other than the substantial workload looming ahead of him. As much as he wanted to make a nuisance of himself at the Hospital Wing he realised that annoying Madame Pomfrey was not the smartest thing to do, and Hermione certainly wouldn’t approve, he could imagine her stern look and it made him grin, until he caught sight of the teetering pile of parchment on his desk. He sighed heavily and dragged himself out of bed and got dressed. He quickly ate breakfast with Ron before loading books into his bag and heading to the library. He cast a moody look out of the window at the clear winter day and scowled heavily. All he wanted to be doing was either sitting with Hermione, or practicing quidditch with his friends.

But instead he joined Ron at their usual table in the library, and they got to work trying to get through two weeks worth of work in the space of a few hours, no easy task. If only Hermione was there being her usual strict self, cracking the whip. Hey now there’s a thought…. No! focus…

By the time Harry had finished about half of the work Ron threw down his quill and stretched. “Well, that’s enough for me mate” he announced, eyes pointed deliberately away from the huge pile of uncompleted work that still loomed in front of him. “We’ve been here all bloody day! It must be about dinner time by now.” he said over the loud grumbling of his stomach. Harry glanced at his watch and saw that it was 6pm, definitely time to stop. He followed Ron’s example and threw his quill down, looking triumphantly at his ‘finished’ pile, which now was casting a larger shadow than his ‘to do’ pile. A good days work indeed.

They got back to their dormitory after a quick dinner and collapsed onto their beds. Ron groaned loudly. “That’s got to be the most work I’ve done in my life.” he complained. Harry agreed heartily, proclaiming that now Hermione’s back she can do the rest. Ron laughed and said that that was very unlikely. Harry grinned and got ready for bed, eyes sparkling. He had had an idea…

After everyone else was sound asleep, Harry got up quietly and pulled the silky invisibility cloak from his trunk at the foot of his bed, followed by the Marauders Map. He glanced quickly around the room and pulled his father’s cloak on over his head. Moving quietly so as not to wake the other boys, Harry crossed the room and slipped out of the door, map in hand, eyes focused on the area marked ‘Hospital Wing’ and the little dot ‘Hermione Granger’. Just her name scrawled on the map, where it had been so absent before, made his heart beat a little faster and his eyes shine a little brighter.

Hey hey guys! I apologize muchly for the months and months in which I disappeared off the face of the earth, or portkey anyway. No excuses forthcoming, but I’m very sorry. I’m happy to find that you’ve been eagerly awaiting the next instalment in my crazy story, so there it is! Read and enjoy folks, love you all!

Elizabella

‘I Love You’

Harry pushed open the door of the Hospital Wing, wincing at the squeak of the hinges. He stepped inside, closing the door again behind him, once again cursing Filch for not oiling the hinges properly. Surely that man must be good for something other than terrorising students? He looked around but couldn’t see Hermione, the ward was deserted. Then his eyes fell on a screen at the far end of the room, by the windows. He walked silently past the empty beds either side of him and peered around the screen. He smiled at the sight that greeted him - Hermione sleeping peacefully, looking more like her old self again. Her hair was shiny and washed, although, of course, still full of curls and waves, the way he liked it best. Her face was clean, the dirt gone and she was smiling slightly in her sleep. She looked peaceful, she looked like she had come home and knew it.

He sat down on the chair by her bed and pulled off the invisibility cloak and put it at the end of Hermione’s bed. He studied the Marauders Map again and saw that Madame Pomfrey was tucked up in bed and Filch and Mrs Norris were prowling about in other parts of the school, so he put the map on top of his cloak on the end of the bed and turned his attention to Hermione.

She looked so beautiful laying there, oblivious to his presence. Harry suddenly realised how lucky he was to have someone like her. She was always there for him, and it had just hit him that she had saved his life so many times that he had lost count, and she was always ready to follow him into any dangerous situation. She was what kept his feet on the floor, and drilled common sense into him and Ron when they needed it. Without her there over the past few weeks he felt like the floor had been pulled from under him, like that awful second when you miss a step going down the stairs, before your foot hits the one below. That feeling of falling, with no support, that’s the only way he could describe it. And then the relief now that his foot had indeed found the next step, and his heart could start beating again.

He reached over and brushed a stray curl of hair from her face, causing her to stir slightly. She frowned in her sleep and muttered something. Harry smiled and ran his fingers through her hair and whispered her name.

Slowly Hermione blinked and opened her eyes, brought out of sleep by someone calling to her. She blinked again and sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She opened them again and smiled when she saw Harry sitting next to her bed. “Oh Harry!” her cried and flung her arms around him, hugging him hard. He hugged her back, just as hard. “Oh Harry!” she said again, pulling away “I’ve missed you so much!”

Harry grinned back at her. “I’ve missed you too Hermione. More than you can believe.” He suddenly looked really guilty and stared at his knees. “I’m sorry I never came for you” he whispered. “But I tried to find you, really I did.” he said urgently, his eyes bright with tears he tried to hide, “You’ve got to believe that Hermione. I really did try.”

Hermione smiled at him and took his hand in hers. Her heart swelled with joy at him playing the hero again. I’m glad you still are, don’t ever change! “I know you did Harry. Once, I felt… I don’t know, it was so strange, it felt like you had suddenly come into the room…or were watching over me or something…I can’t explain it” she said frowning, looking questioningly at him.

Harry nodded “That must have been when we tried scrying for you. Dumbledore made a big wall of water in the air and attempted to find you by scrying. It worked for a while, we saw you, and you looked up, it felt like you were staring right at me but couldn’t see me. But then the water exploded and we all got soaked. Do you know what happened?”

Hermione shook she head. “Rookwood came into my room and shouted about spying and such. She said she’d laid traps so if anyone tried again, what they were using would explode, like the water did.” She grimaced. “I’m so glad you weren’t using glass, I was afraid that you had because of what Azalea said to me, it wouldn’t have been water hiting you.” Hermione said. “I was worried about you, I really hoped you wouldn’t try anything stupid to try to get me. Thank god you didn’t!”

Harry grinned. “Another few days and I probably would have. It’s been hard, not knowing if you were ok or not, if you were even alive.” he swallowed hard and blinked away tears. “If anything had happened to you Hermione…I don’t know what I would have done. You mean the world to me…I… I love you.” he told her, looking into her eyes. Hermione smiled and said “That’s the first time you’ve said that Harry. It means so much. And you know what? I love you too.”

Harry lent over and kissed her softly, Hermione’s arms winding round his neck, hands in his messy hair. He deepened the kiss and she responded eagerly, glad to be back in his arms after so long without him. She had missed him so very much, and showed him just how much in her kisses that night. They stayed together most of the night, wide awake, catching up on everything that had happened at Hogwarts. Harry asked her a few things about Rookwood, but Hermione remained distant, or just refused to answer, it was all still to fresh, too real. So Harry relented and they spent happy hours talking and kissing and laughing. It felt so strange for them both to be laughing again after weeks without happiness, and they welcomed it.

Finally, Harry asked “Hermione, you came back with the Staff of Amaror in your hand. What happened? How did you get it? And how did you use it?”

Hermione sat still for awhile, wondering what exactly to say. “Well, Azalea was activating it, that’s why she needed me, because she needed, um, help to get it working. But then the Staff started glowing, it went bright blue and basically ripped the room apart, with us still in it. We were both knocked unconscious, but I woke up first and took the Staff. I knew that somehow it could be used for travel, so I thought hard about Hogwarts, but nothing happened. Then Azalea woke up. I was so scared, and thought about you, and how much I just wanted to be with you right then, and how much I loved you.” she said softly, looking into his beautiful green eyes. “And then everything went weird. The room sort of…I can’t explain it… the room… turned inside out if you like, and went all twisty and odd. Then suddenly I was in Hogwarts, and Azalea’s stunning spell hit me hard, and I woke up here, washed and dressed in clean clothes” she shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain it better.”

Harry held her eyes and nodded, knowing she was holding something back about how the Staff was activated, but he knew that it was best to let it pass now, and ask later. “So nothing happened to you other than being knocked out when the Staff started glowing?” he asked. Hermione shook her head, but then frowned. “No, I’m fine, but I’m not too sure about Rookwood though.” she said. “She was holding the Staff when it tore the room apart. It must have done something to her, affected her in some way. Her eyes glowed! Bright blue, like the light around the Staff. When I woke up and saw her laying on the floor, I thought she was dead, and I… Harry I know its wrong but I wasn’t even sorry! But then when I took the Staff and tried to use it…her eyes just snapped open and focused on me straight away! It was so scary Harry. And I swear they were glowing that weird blue colour when she shot that stunner at me. It wasn’t normal. I think that the Staff has done something to her. She looked really crazy actually. But I think she was quite crazy before though.” Hermione mused. “I wonder what happened to make her that way.”

Harry shrugged. “I dunno, some people are just like that. Mad.” he looked out the window and saw the sky was beginning to lighten. “I’ve got to go before the others wake up, I don’t want them asking questions” he said and grinned at her. Hermione grinned back and hugged him again. Harry stood up and picked up the map, scanning it carefully. “Ok, Madame Pomfrey is out of bed and on her way, I’ve got to be quick” he said and pulled on his cloak after kissing Hermione goodbye. “You better get better soon Hermione. I don’t know how me and Ron are gonna cope in lessons for much longer without you!” he said before disappearing under the invisibility cloak.

Harry reached the door of the Hospital Wing and reached for the handle. He saw it turn and sprang back out the way as Madame Pomfrey bustled in humming to herself. He waited until she disappeared behind the screen to check on Hermione before he pulled the door open again and slipped out into the deserted corridor. He made his way back to Gryffindor tower without major incident and quickly went up to his dormitory and got into bed just as the first birds began to sing. He grinned to himself as he closed his eyes. Hermione was back and safe, and loved him, Ron was speaking to him again, and he had a quidditch match later in the day. Things couldn’t be better.

~*~*~

Azalea screamed in frustration as she saw the young witch disappear before her eyes with the Staff of Amaror. “Nooo!” she screamed, sobbing. The unfairness! All her hard work come to nothing, now Dumbledore, Dumbledore!, would have the Staff in his hand. How could this have happened?! She screamed until her throat burned and then crumpled to the ground, sobbing and shouting out curses at the world. The rage built up inside her and made her scream again and again, her throat felt like it was on fire!

She suddenly felt the need to destroy something. The manor would do. She flung out her arms and drew deeply on her anger and pain, unlocking the new power that had settled inside her after activating the Staff. She now opened up her mind freely and completely to the energy and felt herself powerless to resist its influence. She saw spots of azure light dancing over her outstretched arms, and the air crackled with the power radiating from her. She released her restraining grip on the power, sending it coursing through the tips of her fingers.

In a matter of seconds the Manor that had once stood tall and proud was no more than a great black smouldering blemish on the ground. There was nothing left, only scorched earth and the smell of sulphur and brimstone.

Azalea Rookwood stood in the middle of the destruction she had created and laughed. She had levelled a building and killed the dozens of men inside it. All in the space of a few seconds. She looked over the scene and felt detached, like she was slipping away.

She fell to her knees, exhausted. And she laughed. Or someone like her laughed. She didn’t know, she was loosing her grip on reality. She didn’t feel like her any more. She felt as though in a dream. She wasn’t controlling her own actions any more.

The pain she had gone through as the power of the Staff consumed her was unimaginable. It had ripped her from her body and taken her into the depths of madness and terror. She had, in that eternal pain filled moment, sensed the existence of every witch and wizard who had ever wielded the Staff of Amaror and all the deeds they had done with it. For that moment she wasn’t the evil, powerful, twisted witch she had become. She was the young, beautiful Azalea, pride of the family again, before she had turned to darkness. In that pain-filled moment she had looked into the soul of the Staff’s creator, of the great Amaror herself. She had seen the evil in the beloved Amaror and realised that she wasn’t the misguided witch who everyone thought she was. She hadn’t just stumbled on the creation of the Staff by accident. She had sought to create an object of immense power and evil. And she succeeded perfectly.

But the Staff had consumed her soul and stilled her heart. Amaror’s soul had stayed locked away in the blackness of her Staff for hundreds of years, but now, now it had found a new being just as corrupt as itself. Azalea Rookwood was the perfect being in which to store the powers of Amaror. And now her soul could come to life again. Amaror Ollivander would live again!

Christmas shopping

The next day a notice went up in the common room announcing that third years and above may go to Hogsmeade on both Saturday and Sunday, rather than just on Saturday, as was usual. Everyone was delighted to hear this as they all had loads of Christmas shopping to do.

Hermione was quite puzzled about what to get Harry for Christmas, obviously she couldn’t get him the same kind of present that she had on previous years when they had not been dating. This time she wanted to get him something really special. She had consulted Ginny but found she wasn’t much help as she was too busy worrying about what to get Malfoy.

“Well we’ll go together anyway, so we can look around and share ideas.” Hermione told her grumbling friend. They had decided to have a girly day shopping on Saturday to buy the boys’ presents, and then Hermione was going back to Hogsmeade again on Sunday with Harry and Ron to get other presents and maybe go to the Three Broomsticks in the afternoon because there was a band playing and they looked quite promising. (i.e. wasn’t called ‘Wailing Wayne’ or ‘The Warbling Weirdos’) So Hermione had reserved a table, they could at least have a place to sit down and talk if the band were awful.

Hermione glanced at her watch and saw that it was 7am. She sighed and grudgingly got out of her nice warm bed and hastily pulled on her dressing gown to ward off the December chill. She looked around the room and scowled at the other girls who were still asleep; warm and cosy in their beds. Hermione hated getting up early at the weekend, especially when everyone else was asleep. But she had promised Harry and Ron she would come to watch their Quidditch training this morning – apparently they had thought up some new moves they wanted to show off.

Grumbling to herself, Hermione walked wearily down the girls’ staircase and met Ginny half way down, hurriedly pulling on her quidditch robes over jeans and a thick jumper. Her head emerged from the top of the robes and she pulled a face at Hermione. “I’m late again! Harry’s gonna kill me! As usual.” She said over her shoulder as she clattered down the stairs, forgetfully leaving her broom propped against the wall. Hermione picked it up and carried on down the stairs into the common room and out the portrait hole.

She ran into Ginny rounding a corner and sent her flying. “Oh sorry Hermione!” Ginny said catching her breath. “I forgot my -”

“Broom?” Hermione finished, holding it out to her. Ginny smiled and said a hurried ‘Thanks’ before sprinting off the way she had come, back out towards the Quidditch Pitch.

“All right! Enough for today!” Harry yelled to his team and sped back towards the ground. Hermione was waiting for him with a stack of toast and a smile. “You guys are getting lots better” she said, eying the rest of the team heading towards the changing rooms. Harry frowned and surveyed his team. “Yeah, I s’pose.” He said and took a bit of toast. “But we’re missing Eric Reynolds again” he grumbled. Seeing Hermione’s questioning expression he explained. “He’s a second year, and a brilliant chaser. Really amazing, almost as good as Ginny.” He scowled suddenly at his toast. “But he hardly ever turns up for early morning practices, apparently he stays in bed ‘til lunch time!” Harry said and went off to the changing room, still muttering about Reynolds.

Hermione waited until Ginny came out the changing room and jogged towards her. “Hey! It’s nearly half nine Hermione, and they’re all going to Hogsmeade at ten!” she said and hurried off towards the castle, Hermione not far behind.

The two girls spent the day in Hogsmeade, looking in every shop for presents for the boys. Hermione saw a set of Chudley Cannons figurines for Ron. They moved around and flew miniature broomsticks. Ginny offered to go halves on it and so they bought it as a joint present. Ginny got Harry a big box full of sweets from Honeydukes and then disappeared for a while to get Malfoy’s present, refusing to tell Hermione what it was. Hermione just raised an eyebrow and grinned at her before setting off to find Harry something.

She was getting increasingly frustrated. By mid afternoon she still hadn’t found Harry anything. She was wandering aimlessly down a side street when she spotted something catching the light in the shop window. She smiled and pushed open the door of the shop and stepped inside. The shop was dark and she could see dust particles floating in the rays of weak sunlight coming in through the grimy windows. Hermione looked around curiously and examined some odd looking items on display.

“Can I help you?” said a voice behind her. Hermione jumped and spun around. A little old man stood before her blinking from behind thick glasses.

“Erm..er… yes…I…in the window, the two-” she broke off as the little man scurried over to the window and pulled out two items from the display.

“These, my dear?” he asked politely, blinking at her. Hermione smiled and nodded, hopping Harry would like it.

Harry and Ron walked aimlessly through the busy streets of Hogsmeade, looking for presents for Hermione and Ginny. Harry decided to get Ginny a big box of Honeydukes sweets and Ron got Hermione the same.

Harry was then hopelessly aware that he still had no idea what to get Hermione. He wandered up a side street with Ron and peered through the windows of some murky antiques shops. Harry was just about to give up and get her a book when he found the perfect gift. He grinned and called to Ron before going into the shop and asking for the beautiful item displayed in the shop window. The woman behind the till smiled and said that whoever she was must be a very special girl. Harry smiled and said that she certainly was.

~*~*~*~*~

It was late afternoon when Hermione made her way back through Hogsmeade towards Hogwarts alone; Ginny was still looking for Malfoy’s mystery present. Why wouldn’t Ginny tell her what it was?!

Well if it makes her blush just thinking about it maybe I don’t want to know! She quickly cut off that line of thought before her imagination provided her with too vivid pictures. She imagined Harry’s face when she gave him his present - he would either love it or hate it. I hope he loves it she thought, suddenly doubting her choice, hoping it wouldn’t bring back too many bad memories.

“Hermione!” Harry called, jogging up to her from the direction of the shops. Hermione returned the grin he gave her and eyed the little bag he was carrying with interest. Harry, seeing her gaze, twitched the bag out of sight behind him, stopping her from reading the shop’s name on the front. His green eyes sparkled with amusement at the look of disappointment on her face. “Can’t show you that, or you’ll probably guess what it is!” he said, smile widening at her scowl.

“You could give me a clue” Hermione suggested hopefully, eyes widening in a puppy-dog fashion. Harry just kept grinning and shook his head. “Come on Hermione, lets get back to school and you can help me with my potions essay!” he said and grabbed her hand. Hermione rolled her eyes and let him take her hand and tell her eagerly about his new ideas for the Gryffindor quidditch team as they walked.

Hermione first realised something was wrong when they approached the doors of the Entrance Hall. There was a cluster of third and fourth years back from Hogsmeade hovering in groups on the steps, all with pale faces. Hermione and Harry exchanged a puzzled look and walked towards them. As they got closer Hermione saw that two of the third year Gryffindor girls were crying, and the rest looked red eyed and scared. She frowned. This didn’t look good.

Harry went over to a group of fourth year boys to find out what was going on. After a few exchanged words Hermione saw Harry’s face become grave and his eyes widen. She quickly walked over to them and Harry turned to her, face chalky white. He just stood there looking at her for a few seconds before saying “Oh god Hermione. It’s Eric Reynolds. He’s… Hermione he’s dead!”

Harry saw the colour drain from Hermione’s face as he told her the news. “How?” she asked faintly, confusion and shock plain on her face. Harry shook his head slowly. “I don’t know” He gestured to the people around them, “They don’t know either, everyone’s really confused. Apparently there’s loads of rumours going round, but no one really knows what to believe. No one knows anything for certain other than he’s dead.”

Hermione nodded, staring back over the grounds, vacantly watching laughing students make their way back from Hogsmeade, not knowing yet what had happened. They won’t be laughing for long, not when they find out Hermione thought dully and sighed, bringing herself back to the present with a shiver. She put a hand on Harry’s arm. “Come on, lets go inside, it’s freezing out here. Someone will know what’s going on.” she said quietly.

“Yeah, but will they tell us?” Harry muttered darkly, remembering the secrets kept from him all his life.

Hermione stood still a moment longer, still not quite believing this could happen. This was Hogwarts. Hogwarts was safe, how could someone die here? But then again hadn’t she thought the same not so long ago and then found herself kidnapped?

She suddenly had a strange feeling that everything was beginning to go wrong. She couldn’t explain it, but she knew somehow that things had changed. As soon as Harry said that Eric Reynolds had died she felt it. She somehow knew that Eric’s dead was not an accident.

Ron was in the Entrance Hall waiting for them to come in. “Ron!” Harry called, hurrying over to him, noting the freckles standing out on his pale face. “Do you know what’s going on?”

Ron nodded, looking slightly sick. “It’s Reynolds, he… he’s in our quidditch team, the little kid in second year, you know?” Harry nodded and Ron, taking a shaky breath, continued. “They found him a few hours a go. His friends. He didn’t turn up for practice this morning did he. He slept in. He stayed in bed.”

Harry frowned slightly. “Ron you’re not making much sense. What happened to him?”

Ron blinked. “Didn’t I say? He died in his sleep. He always slept in ’til late on Saturdays, so his friends just left him asleep this morning and went down to breakfast and stuff. They said he looked like he was having a bad dream, tossing and turning, muttering to himself, but they left him anyway. Thought it was only a dream.” He stopped for a few seconds and then continued unsteadily. “They came back this afternoon, his friends I mean, and decided to wake him up. But he was already dead by then.” He finished, as white as a sheet.

Hermione glanced at Harry and saw the pained look on his face. “We should have woken him up” He said quietly. “I should have woken him up! This morning, when he didn’t turn up for quidditch. If I went back to wake him up to make him come to practice, he wouldn’t be dead now! I should have woken him up.”

Hermione just stared at him. How can he blame himself for this? she thought sadly. She grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around to face her, making him look at her. She saw the anger and guilt slowly begin to fade from his eyes.

“It was not your fault” She told him firmly. Ron nodded and spoke up. “She’s right mate. Don’t beat yourself up about this! You weren’t to know! Nobody knew! And even Madame Pomfrey doesn’t know how he died.”

Hermione blinked. Madame Pomfrey doesn’t know how he died?! Of course she knows! It’s surprising that everyone hadn’t worked it out by now! “Ron isn’t it obvious!” she exclaimed, fighting the urge to roll her eyes at him.

“What do you mean?” Ron said, frowning. “I don’t -”

Hermione stopped him with a sharp look as she noticed the other students in the Entrance Hall all focusing on their conversation; some trying to look as though they were doing something else, others staring openly, but all listening intently. Hermione wondered how much they had understood. She quickly replayed the conversation in her head and was relieved to find that none of them had said anything important. If someone so much as mentioned ‘dark arts’ today, the rumours would start to grow more dramatic, and very likely closer to the truth.

“We can’t talk here” Harry said, looking hard at a group of third years, sending them hurrying away with red faces. “C’mon” he said and led the way back to the common room. They walked in through the portrait hole and sat down by the fire, each wrapped up in there own thoughts, staring at the flickering flames.

Hermione noticed how quiet it was. A Gryffindor had died, no one wanted to talk at all. What was there to say?

A death at Hogwarts. That hadn’t happened for years. Not since the first time the Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years a go by a young Voldemort. Of course, Cedric Diggory had died almost two years a go, and there had been the attack on the train at the start of the year, when many people died. But not actually in Hogwarts, not in the castle that had been considered the only safe place during Voldemort’s rein. Not here. No one had died in their bed, where they felt the most safe.

That’s what made the difference. That’s why all the professors and students they passed on the way to the common room looked shaken and disbelieving. Hogwarts was where Albus Dumbledore was. Hogwarts was safe. But now was that safety and security finally shattered?

It may take a few days, but eventually parents and students alike would begin thinking that Hogwarts wasn’t such a safe place after all. It was where Dumbledore was, and where Harry Potter was, and so was bound to be a target for attacks. How long before worried parents took their children out of school? How long until this was all over the papers? How long until the panic would start, how long until people finally realised what the they were up against? It wasn’t just Voldemort now, there was two threats. Would the wizarding world be crushed between them, could they really resist both Voldemort and Rookwood for long? How could they? But how could they not?

And people would soon wonder as to the cause of Eric Reynolds’ death, and it wouldn’t be long before the truth was found out. After all, Hermione had already worked it out. As soon as Ron said ‘he died in his sleep’ Hermione knew. Other people would soon realise what she had. It would come out about the dreamwalking and people would soon connect the dots.

Azalea Rookwood.

Hate boiled through Hermione in such a way that shocked her. She had never before felt this strongly about anything. Rookwood had attacked the Hogwarts Express, killing anyone she laid eyes on, whether they stood up to her or just didn’t get out the way fast enough. Children, teenagers, adults, any age - it didn’t matter to her.

Then she appeared in Hermione’s dream, threatening her.

And she had kidnapped her, kept her prisoner for weeks and took her blood to activate the Staff. By doing that she had unknowingly created a bond between the Staff and Hermione, Hermione could feel where it was, even though it was locked in Dumbledore’s office! She could point straight to it even now.

Hermione hated her for that more than anything.

And now she had killed a young Gryffindor boy, a seemingly random attack. Why him? There had to be a reason. Hermione was positive Rookwood was behind this. Eric had died in his sleep, struggling and muttering. Azalea was a Dreamwalker; someone who could enter the world of dreams, the Space, and bring people there herself. She could control and manipulate events there, her powers there only limited by what her imagination could dream up. Yes, Rookwood was behind this.

Hate replaced the fear inside Hermione and she no longer recoiled from the memories of her imprisonment at Rookwood’s Manor. She hated Azalea Rookwood with all her heart. She wanted her dead. And she wanted to be there when she died, to see it with her own eyes.

Hermione jumped as the logs on the fire suddenly crackled, and looked around her, remembering where she was. She began to feel uneasy about her thoughts. She didn’t want anyone dead! Of course not! Not anyone!

Abruptly she got up and went up to her dormitory to escape the oppressive silence of the common room. She was greeted by wan smiles from her friends and quiet hellos. Hermione smiled vaguely in return and quickly got into bed and pulled the hangings closed; she couldn’t bear to see any more ashen faces and red rimmed eyes. Deftly she performed the charm to ward her dreams from intrusions and settled down under her thick duvet, trying to turn her mind to quiet and peaceful thoughts, and eventually sleep came.

But still the hate swelled within her and filled her dreams.