Here at the End

Here at the End

By

Ahn Na Blue

Rated PG-13

Chapter Seven: And in This Corner…Hermione Granger

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine. If he was, I’d rewrite book six to have Harry profess his undying love for Hermione, and they’d celebrate by putting Ginny in a stewpot. Just kidding, Ginny fans! And by the way, what are you doing here?

Many thanks to everyone who voted and helped this story come in a surprising third in the Felix Felicis! It’s amazing! Astonishing! You all kick serious aay double ess. Bootay. Badonkadonk. Whatever you want to call it. Butt, even.

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

Everyone was staring at him. Everyone being Professors Lupin and McGonagall, Mad-Eye Moody, and Tonks. Harry couldn’t tell whether they were so angry that they were speechless, or if they were just plain confused.

McGonagall’s lips pursed. She was angry. “The fact that you went hunting for Pettigrew, when we expressly told you that it was being taken care of-” Her lips pursed tighter; she hardly even had lips anymore, “You’ve broken several school rules, and you could have been killed! Worse still, you put Miss Granger in jeopardy as well!”

“I’m sorry,” Harry said helplessly. And truly he was. Had he not gone after Pettigrew himself, they might have captured him, they might have been able to learn things from him. Now he was just a pile of dust. At the time, going to Pitcairn forest had seemed the only option, but those feelings were miles away, and Harry couldn’t find the words to explain them.

“You…burned him up?” Moody asked slowly, squinting his wonky magic eye. He was confused. “Did you use Incendio?”

“No, I-” Harry looked down at his hands. “I can’t explain it. I didn’t use my wand at all. I just touched him…like-”

“Like Professor Quirrell,” Lupin finished thoughtfully.

“Exactly,” Harry said. “Only not exactly. With Quirrell, I had no idea what was going on. I couldn’t feel anything; I didn’t know why it was burning him to touch me, I only knew that I had to hang onto him. This time I- I definitely felt something…I think I wanted it to happen…” Harry trailed off, thinking of Hermione’s frightened face.

“Can you control it? Could you call it up now, for instance?”

Harry tried to focus. He tried to recall everything he was feeling in the forest. After a moment or two he sighed and shook his head. Around him, the Order of the Phoenix looked crestfallen.

“Peter Pettigrew is dead,” Professor McGonagall said flatly. “And we’re no closer to identifying the wolf-like creatures….we have no other option but to wait for the Deatheaters to make their next move.”

Harry thought her tone sounded faintly accusatory.

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

The Great Hall was an uproar of chattering, that is, until Harry walked in. He supposed that he should be used to the sudden silences by now, but it still bothered him to see the other students staring at him, or worse, desperately trying not to stare at him. His footsteps seemed to make very loud thumps until he reached the table where Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were sitting.

“Hi Harry,” Ginny smiled at him prettily.

“Hi Ginny.” Harry reached for the pitcher of pumpkin juice and glanced over at Ron and Hermione, who were both poking at their food and not looking at each other. For some reason, Harry felt relieved. Part of him had thought that after their kiss, Ron and Hermione would turn into Ron and Lavender, but luckily, the only thing that appeared to have changed was that there was no bickering.

Suddenly, Hermione pushed her plate away and stood up.

“Where’re you going?” Ron asked.

Hermione seemed physically unable to look at him. “I have to go and work on something. Harry, would you meet me later in the empty charms classroom?”

“Sure,” Harry said.

“What for?” Ron and Ginny asked together, but Hermione acted as though she hadn’t heard.

“I’m going to lock it, just give a knock.”

“Can’t I use ‘alohomora’?”

Hermione gave a little smile and met his eyes for just a second. “Oh Harry, I must know some decent locking spells by now.” And then she walked out, her brown hair swaying.

Harry wondered what she was up to. Part of him wanted to finish his pumpkin juice and follow her that instant.

“I think I might have messed things up,” Ron said miserably.

“Messed what up?” Harry asked.

Ron jerked his head in the direction Hermione had just gone. “Ever since…she’ll barely look at me. And I don’t know what to say.” He sighed. “I wish I hadn’t done it. I just want things to go back to normal. One more day of this awkwardness and I’m going to go spare.”

Harry brightened. Going back to normal seemed like an excellent idea. Then he wouldn’t have to wonder why Ron kissing Hermione had bothered him so much. He wouldn’t have to feel strangely guilty when he noticed that Hermione was pretty, that she was beautiful even, and brilliant-

“Don’t give up,” Ginny said with surprising force. But she wasn’t looking at Ron at all. She was staring after Hermione with an odd expression on her face. “After all, you’ve liked her for ages, haven’t you?”

Harry watched Ron closely. Ron’s brow was furrowing, and he was pressing his lips together and moving them from side to side. This was obviously Ron deep in thought.

“Well haven’t you?” Ginny demanded.

Ron gave a start. “I don’t know; I guess so, I mean, I don’t really like the idea of her snogging Krum…”

Harry thought that Ron sounded doubtful at best. He was surprised. After all, Ron had always blown a gasket whenever it seemed that Hermione was dating someone.

“Of course you didn’t; you like her,” Ginny said soothingly. “That’s why you kissed her last night.”

Harry was faintly annoyed with Ginny for reminding them all of the kiss, but Ron said, “I don’t know…kissing her, it wasn’t like snogging Lavender…” Ron’s brow began to furrow again, and his pursed lips began to move back and forth….Harry was watching so closely that his eyes were becoming dry from not blinking, and Ginny’s face looked like she was watching a train wreck.

Ron’s face suddenly released into an expression that was part humor, and part horror. “It felt like I was kissing you!” He exclaimed, pointing at Ginny.

Ginny turned a very deep shade of red, and then she threw a dinner roll at him, which bounced off of his forehead. Harry couldn’t help laughing, but Ginny seemed deadly serious when she hissed, “That’s an awful thing to say! Don’t you know how much Hermione likes you? She goes on and on about you…She’d be heartbroken…you can’t ever tell her that!”

Harry’s laughter died in his throat. Did Hermione really go on and on about Ron? When? Certainly not these days; she and Ginny were barely speaking. Unless they had talked last night in their dormitory…

“Settle down, I wasn’t going to tell her,” Ron was saying, embarrassed. Ginny’s reaction was getting a lot of attention from the other tables.

“Well I certainly hope not, because she’s crazy about you,” Ginny concluded.

“I know,” Ron said, but Harry thought that Ron was giving him a strangely furtive look.

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

“Hermione?” Harry knocked on another door. He hadn’t asked which empty charms classroom Hermione would be in, because he hadn’t realized that there would be so many, but then the fourth door shivered and clicked, and Harry walked inside.

Hermione was in the center of the classroom. All of the tables had been pushed to the far outsides, and she was pacing around a cauldron with an open book in her hand. The cauldron was billowing white smoke in a steady stream.

Harry stepped closer and tried to peer inside, but could see nothing but white.

“There’s nothing in there yet,” Hermione said, reading his mind. “I’m just preparing it. Honestly I wanted to get your opinion before I started.”

“Well,” Harry said curiously, “What’s it going to be?”

Hermione’s book clapped shut and her eyes were positively sparkling. “I’m trying to conjure a talisman for you.” She glanced over Harry’s shoulder towards the door. “But you can’t say anything…technically I’m not supposed to do it…I’m not even supposed to know HOW to do it, we aren’t scheduled to really learn conjuring talismans until next term.”

Harry couldn’t say that he was surprised. She always mastered things weeks and weeks before anyone else. “You’ve always been good at conjuring,” he said thoughtfully. “I’ve never really tried it.” He hesitated a moment, not wanting to sound stupid, and then said casually, “What is it anyway?”

“Well it’s…” she paused and stared into the cauldron. “It’s making something out of nothing, really…or in this case, making something new out of a bunch of existing somethings…”

“Like transfiguration,” Harry suggested.

“Not exactly. We’re not changing existing things into something new, we’re using existing things to influence the something new that we’re making.”

Harry’s brow started to furrow a lot like Ron’s. “You’re getting confusing. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

Hermione looked insulted, but then gave a sheepish smile and said, “I’ve never had a problem before. I’ve been conjuring since first year. It’s kind of- well, it’s really the only magic that I’m naturally good at…”

“Don’t be ridiculous; you’re good at everything. You Apparated before everyone else…you were the first to master nonverbal spells, and you were the best one in the DA…really the only thing you stink at is flying,” Harry said, trying to think of things that she had conjured. “Of course! I saw you conjure those canaries! And my shoe!” He looked down with a grin. “I guess I was just taking your conjuring for granted.”

“Amongst other things,” Hermione mumbled.

“What?”

“Nothing. Now let me tell you what I’m trying to do.” Hermione reached into her robes and pulled out a small bottle, filled with what appeared to be nothing more than a bright blue glow. “I’ve managed to extract the spell from the Marauder’s Map-”

“You broke the Marauder’s Map!” Harry’s mouth dropped open.

“I’m going to put the spell back,” Hermione said, wrinkling her nose at him as though that should be obvious. “But we need it. I’m trying to conjure a talisman that will act like the Marauder’s Map, only for horcruxes.”

“Hermione that’s brilliant!”

She lowered her eyes and blushed. “Well, you gave me the idea, in Pitcairn forest, you said that you wished we had a Marauder’s Map that worked everywhere.”

Now Harry was blushing too. “You really listen to what I say, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. Only there’s one problem. The spell from the map isn’t enough…I also need a horcrux.”

Harry thought quickly. “The locket was a fake, and Dumbledore blasted the ring into oblivion, as far as I know, but-” his eyes lit up, “maybe Dobby still has the diary! Will that work? I mean, it was destroyed, in the Chamber of Secrets…”

Hermione’s eyes narrowed as she considered it. “It might. Could you get it from him?”

“Sure.”

“Terrific. But there’s one other thing that you need to do today.”

“What’s that?”

“Do you remember how I told you that my map spell was written just for me?”

Harry nodded. “I was impressed.”

Hermione smiled. “Yes, well, I want this talisman to work the same way. I don’t want just anyone to be able to get their hands on it.”

“Good idea. So how do you do that?”

“Cast your patronus into the cauldron.”

Harry drew his wand and focused very hard; the Patronus was still a challenge. Thinking about happy things was never that easy for him. But after just a second, he said, “Expecto Patronum,” and his silver stag burst forth. In one graceful moment, it had leapt into the billows of smoke and disappeared.

“That should be long enough,” Hermione said after a minute or two. Harry raised his wand and the stag jumped back out of the cauldron and returned to him in a wispy, silver thread.

“Don’t you think you should do it too? What if I-” Harry paused, realizing that he had almost just said, ‘what if I die’.

When he looked up, Hermione was wearing a stricken expression, but she quickly recovered and said, “What if you want me to call up the map while we’re looking for one of the horcruxes?”

“Right.”

Hermione nodded, and cast her patronus wordlessly; a shining otter bounded out of her wand and raced across the floor. Harry tried not to laugh as it scrambled comically into the cauldron. “All right,” she said, after she had recalled her otter. “Now it’s ready for both of us. We just need the diary from Dobby. And Harry,” she said sternly. “Make sure that you pay him for it.”

“Yes Hermione,” Harry said in the same tone that reluctant children often say ‘yes ma’am.’ They started to walk towards the door. Harry glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He wanted to ask about Ron, but didn’t quite dare. “So…how’s Buckbeak doing?”

“Oh, he’s nearly recovered already! Madam Pomfrey was down at Hagrid’s this morning, and she almost healed the wound, even though she kept saying things like ‘I’m not a MagiVet, if this hippogriff dies I won’t be held responsible!’” Hermione smiled and Harry chuckled. “But there’s still the question of lasting effects. We don’t know what that thing was that bit him…if it’s like a werewolf…”

“He’ll be okay Hermione,” Harry said, instinctively placing a hand on her back.

“I know… he’s restless already…Hagrid had to tie him up; he kept trying to fly…I think I might take him out later.”

“Maybe I’ll come down to visit him with you,” Harry said.

“Oh Harry would you?” Hermione said, clapping her hands. “He’d really like that.”

“Sure I will. After all, he’s saved my life what, three times now in the last four months?”

Hermione gave Harry a quick hug that made him shiver. And then they left the classroom, Hermione casting a silent locking charm over her shoulder, and Harry wondering what was happening to him that a girl who had hugged him all his life was suddenly making him shiver.

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

Harry and Ron were walking back from Divination, yawning. It hadn’t been a particularly interesting lesson. Professor Firenze had droned on and on about the position of one star juxtaposed with another, explaining the cosmic influence of gravity and the earth’s rotation as it related to predicting the future. He noted that when Orion was in the southern sky there was a great propensity of false prophecies, except if the seer happened to be in the South China Sea…

“So many stars,” Harry said listlessly.

“Enough to make you SEE stars,” Ron said dizzily, but Harry didn’t know what he was complaining about, Ron had snored through half of the class.

“I suppose we’re lucky,” said Harry. “We could’ve been stuck with Professor Trelawney.” From what they had heard, Professor Trelawney’s class to the first and second years pretty much consisted of her falling to her knees and moaning, “doomed, doomed, we’re all going to die! Save yourselves!” She would then rise up and go to each child, predicting their futures: “Dead” “Maimed” “Maybe just disfigured, but still bad,” and then leave the room.

“Well at least Trelawney isn’t a homework freak,” Ron grumbled, shaking the rolls of parchment beneath his arm. “If I have to do one more star chart….but what do you care? Ginny does all of your bloody homework anyway.”

“You’re the one who suggested it!”

Ron frowned and clammed up, just as they ran into Hermione on her way back from Arithmancy.

“Hi Hermione,” said Harry. “How was Arithmancy?”

“Not much homework today,” she answered, and actually sounded a little bit disappointed.

“How can you be sad about that?” Ron exclaimed, exasperated. “I mean, we all know you’re a little bit cuckoo for the assignments, but with the load we’ve been getting this year-”

“A little bit cuckoo?!” Hermione hissed, her eyes darkening, “Just because I LIKE to learn things-”

“Ha, ‘like to learn things’, that’s the understatement of the century,” Ron sneered, giving Harry a light elbow in the ribs. “Can you believe it? Hermione Granger ‘likes to learn things’!”

Hermione’s face was becoming very red. “If you hate homework so much, why don’t you just get your sister to do it?! She does everyone else’s anyway!” And then she turned on her heel, and stormed off down the hall.

Ron peered after her with a huge grin on his face. “Did you see that?” he asked Harry. “That was great!”

“You and Hermione arguing,” Harry said, confused. “That was great?”

“Yeah! Didn’t it feel like things were back to normal?”

Harry started walking again, feeling something hopeful flutter in his chest. “So…you aren’t dating then?”

Ron was thoughtful. “Well, I don’t know- I’ve been talking to Luna a lot-”

“Luna?” Harry asked, surprised.

“Yeah,” Ron said defensively. “What’s wrong with Luna?”

“Nothing! I like Luna.”

“Me too,” Ron smiled, “She’s a complete wacko, and it’s great…and talking to her, I’ve realized what I like best about me and Hermione…it’s the way we are together, the fighting and stuff, it’s the best part…so if we’re going to go out, that’s how I want it to be.”

Harry stopped walking and grabbed Ron by the arm. “Listen, you can’t just do that, do you understand? You can’t have it both ways…you can’t date Hermione and still treat her like the twin sister you’ve never had, don’t you get it?” Harry knew that his voice was becoming louder, but what Ron had said had made him so angry that he couldn’t help it. “All the bickering might be fun for you, but it hurts her feelings Ron-”

“What are you talking about? No it doesn’t-”

“And now I find out you’re talking to Luna on the side-”

“I can talk to Luna!”

“That’s not the point-”

Ron crossed his arms and looked at Harry very carefully. “Then tell me Harry. Just what IS the point?”

Harry looked away. Why had he let himself get so upset? If they wanted to bicker, it was their business…except that it was starting to feel as though it was his business as well, that Hermione was his business and his business alone-Harry pushed that thought out of his mind. It was a miracle that Ron had been all right with his dating Ginny…if he found out that Harry was having wrong thoughts about Hermione…well, it’d take more than just a miracle to save their friendship.

He glanced back up at Ron, who was still watching him. Maybe I’m wrong, he thought, because it’s not like it was with Ginny…I don’t want to strangle Ron like I did Dean………..I just want to hit him a little bit, box him around the ears maybe…

“Did you hear that?” Ron whispered suddenly. “Someone just said your name.”

“That’s nothing new,” Harry said glumly.

“It sounded like McGonagall,” Ron said, and began to creep along the wall to where the hallway met another corridor. “Wish we had extendable ears,” Ron whispered when they reached it.

“I refuse to believe it,” Professor McGonagall was saying to someone. “No. I won’t hear of it.”

“We’d be fools not to consider the possibility,” said a voice that Harry recognized as Professor Lupin.

There was a long pause before Professor McGonagall spoke again. “I just can’t believe that…Harry Potter is NOT a horcrux,” and Harry and Ron had to strain to hear her now; her voice had dropped to a hissing whisper. “To think that he’s the one who will save us, and that he’ll have to die….that we’ll have to kill him…No. It’s ridiculous.”

“It’s not ridiculous,” said a new voice, and that was Tonks. “It’s straight bloody awful, and I hope it’s not true, but-”

“It’s not true, and until you have evidence to the contrary, I won’t hear any more about it.”

They could hear Professor McGonagall’s footsteps as she stalked away in the opposite direction.

“Oh Remus,” they heard Tonks say after a few seconds. “I hope we’re wrong.”

And then Ron dragged Harry away down the hall.

“They’re professors,” Ron muttered angrily as they walked. “You’d think they’d know how to use silencio…”

But Harry barely heard him.

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

In the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny sat quietly at a corner table. Ron had just told Hermione and Ginny what they had overheard, since Harry seemed unable to form words. Upon hearing the news, Ginny’s eyes welled with tears and she threw herself into Harry’s arms.

“Harry, Harry,” was all she kept saying, as he gently patted her back.

“Well I don’t believe it for a second,” Ron said, not sounding so sure. “Lupin and Tonks have got to be off their rockers. Harry can’t be a horcrux…Can he Hermione?”

Harry looked across at Hermione, who had been staring at him, wide eyed and unblinking. She was as white as a sheet.

“I don’t know anything about horcruxes, Ron,” she said, without taking her eyes off Harry. “I don’t know how they’re made…or any of their properties…and there’s nothing in the library. Not even in the Restricted Section.”

“Is that all you are?” Ginny demanded, extracting herself from Harry’s shoulder to glare at Hermione, who lowered her eyes. “Books? Look, we have to find out- If Harry’s a horcrux-” she turned to him, her green eyes glittering. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to train tomorrow,” Hermione interjected, her tone even and businesslike. “So I’m going to bed.”

Ginny watched her go with an expression of horror. “How can she sleep?” she asked incredulously. “You’re going to have to die and it’s like she doesn’t even care!”

“Pipe down, Ginny,” Ron said quietly, as Hermione’s feet disappeared up the stairs to the girls’ dormitory. “That’s not what she means.”

***********

The next day, Harry somehow made it through classes, and was rewarded for his diligence by loads of homework. Twenty inches of parchment on the uses of dragon’s blood for Potions, and he was informed by Professor Lupin that he was to begin taking private Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons twice a week. And of course, there was another star chart from Firenze.

Harry hardly cared. If he was a horcrux, then what did it matter? What did it matter if he went to class at all? I’m just going to end up dead anyway, he thought as he walked slowly to the Quidditch pitch, where Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were waiting. Harry couldn’t decide how to feel. Part of him wanted to accept it, after all, he realized that this was always the way it might have turned out. That part wanted to save his friends, to save the world…that part wanted to keep fighting.

The other part just wanted to stop. He just wanted to lie down and rest. Death had always been a risk. But now it seemed like the only choice, and it took everything in his heart just to keep his legs moving across the grass.

“What would you like to practice today, Harry?” Hermione asked without looking up from the book she had been reading.

Harry felt a twinge of annoyance. She had been ignoring him all day, and now she wouldn’t even look at him. “I don’t care,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

“How about ‘lateo’?” Ron suggested, but Harry shook his head. “Stupefy?”

Harry sighed. “Look, maybe we shouldn’t practice anything today. I’m bogged down with homework, and Professor Lupin is going to take over training me.” Harry looked away from them all. “So we really don’t have to do this any more.”

“It’s ridiculous for you to have all this homework,” Ginny grumbled from where she sat, surrounded by rolls of parchment and open books. “You should be dedicated one hundred percent to your training. You should talk to Professor McGonagall and get her to waiver you out of classes.”

Frankly, Harry didn’t care one way or another, but Hermione suddenly slapped her book down hard against the ground.

“Harry has to go to class,” she said simply.

Ginny rolled her eyes. “Not this again. I know that you think there’s nothing more to life but libraries and fresh parchment, but Harry’s got more important things to do.”

“School is important,” Hermione said coolly.

“Don’t you get it?” Ginny exclaimed, standing up and crossing her arms across her chest. “Harry needs to focus on his training-”

“Harry’s always been focused on his training. And he’s always handled school as well.”

Ginny made a frustrated noise in her throat like a strangled cat and spat, “You’re impossible! Why do you have to be such a goody two shoes?”

“Hermione,” Harry said calmly. “Maybe Ginny’s right. Maybe I should be concentrating on what really matters now.” Hermione stared at him with a horrified expression. Then she looked at Ginny, whose face was blazing with triumph, and lowered her eyes. “I’ll go talk to Professor McGonagall,” Harry said flatly.

“I’ll go with you, if you want,” Ginny purred.

“You go right ahead.”

Harry turned sharply. He had never heard Hermione use that tone of voice before. It was cold, and hard, and angry. And she was trembling. He could see it in her arms.

“Hermione, what-”

“Both of you go right ahead!” she shrieked, her expression wild. “Really you’re quite perfect for each other- Harry needs to sacrifice himself and constantly save everyone, and you need to love the hero! It’d be all the better for you if he did sacrifice himself, wouldn’t it? It’d be the perfect end to your tragic, star-crossed story!”

Harry glanced down at Ginny; her eyes had narrowed to slits. “You don’t know what you’re talking about-”

“I know exactly what I’m talking about!” Hermione said shrilly. “And I understand what you don’t! Don’t you get it?! Harry needs to go to classes, he needs to pass his tests, because he has to if he wants to be an Auror, and he will be an Auror, after all of this is over, because he’s not going to die!” Hermione was shaking so badly; Harry wanted to go and steady her, but he was too shocked to move.

“You, both of you, might be ready to accept that Harry’s a horcrux, but I’m not!” She looked at Ginny very directly. “He’s not a horcrux, and if you don’t keep your nose out of this I’m going to break it off!”

Ginny stepped in front of Harry. “I’m his girlfriend!” she screeched, and to Harry’s horror, she drew her wand. “If there’s anyone who needs to keep their nose out of this, it’s you Hermione!”

When Harry looked back at Hermione, she had drawn her wand as well. Things were going from bad to worse. Ron looked like a spectator at a very fast Quidditch match, his head whipping from side to side…except that Quidditch spectators didn’t generally wear such a terrified expression…

“What are you going to do,” Hermione was sneering. “Turn my bogies into bats?”

“I’m going to beat you over the head with a copy of ‘Hogwarts: A History,’ that’s what I’m going to do!” Ginny screeched furiously, and before Harry could say, “Ginny, don’t!”, she had pointed her wand at Hermione and shouted, “rictusempra!”

Harry watched helplessly as a jet of silver light flew towards Hermione, but at the last second, Hermione waved her wand across her body and disappeared. Harry knew that she had used a nonverbal Lateo. She reappeared a moment later and Ginny tried again, this time missing completely.

“Stop running away!” Ginny shouted, getting frustrated, and Hermione stopped directly in front of her and glared.

“What? Not fast enough to catch me? Maybe you should try that bat bogey hex instead, you one trick pony.”

Harry saw Ginny clench and unclench her fists, and Harry quickly grabbed her hand. Ginny looked up at him gratefully and wrapped her hand around his own; she had misunderstood, he had only been trying to keep her from striking Hermione…

“You’re just jealous,” Ginny said haughtily, and Harry was reminded of the tone she used when she was talking about Fleur. “And you’re sick of yourself, ashamed that you’re useless to Harry when it comes to horcruxes…there aren’t any books on the subject…and that’s all you were ever really good at anyway…”

Hermione’s eyes went dark as storm clouds, and then, before Harry could even open his mouth to put and end to this nightmare, she waved her wand in a broad stroke across her chest and sent Ginny flying through the air. Luckily, Ginny’s grip on Harry’s hand hadn’t been too tight, or he might have been tossed right along with her. She landed with a hard thud, and didn’t seem likely to get back up.

“Hey!” Ron said without much conviction. He still couldn’t decide who he should be defending. But he jogged to Ginny’s side, as did Harry, to see if she was badly hurt.

“I think she’s all right, just got the wind knocked out of her,” Ron said, holding her hand and patting her pale cheeks. “What was that spell anyway? Bloody nonverbal spells…they make Hermione a lot more tricky….as if she wasn’t confusing enough to begin with…”

Harry looked back to where Hermione had been standing, but she was no longer there. He stood up and scanned the pitch.

“Hermione? Hermione where are you?” he called out.

“Let’s get Ginny in to Madam Pomfrey,” Ron said, hoisting her limp form off of the ground.

“Right,” said Harry, and they started to walk slowly towards the castle.

But Harry kept looking over his shoulder, wondering where Hermione had got off to.

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

AN: These chapters are getting long, aren’t they? All right, next time we see the aftermath of the catfight, I don’t know if there’ll be another, but you know Ginny will probably be spitting mad for awhile…there will also be some Harry and Hermione bonding in the air…but don’t count Ginny out yet!

On a more somber note, I, and I know many of you, have been horrified by the destruction of Katrina. It’s truly awful, the destruction of that city; it was so incredibly culturally rich, and I really can’t stop thinking of the lives of the survivors. And I know, every time somebody writes these kind of notes, they seem artificial, and self-serving. But seriously, I hope that none of you were affected….and those of us who were not, can’t really even comprehend it…