Unofficial Portkey Archive

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, it belongs to JK Rowling, etc etc.

Authors Note: As promised, here's the next chappie. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter Thirteen

Harry and Draco spent the entire week trying to figure out whom Voldemort wanted dead at Hogwarts. Harry could only come up with three candidates, those being himself, Professor Slughorn (for that was one of the reason's the old Professor had agreed to come back to Hogwarts, for fear of Voldemort) and of course, Headmaster Dumbledore.

"Would Voldemort really try to get a student to kill off Dumbledore?" Draco had asked, scepticism in his tone.

Harry thought he had a point, but still, Dumbledore was one of the candidates, and Harry was going to keep an open mind. He wouldn't put anything past Voldemort.

They also took an effort to keep an eye on the seventh year Slytherin Travis Grimsby, who certainly fit the bill. He was shady looking, with sallow skin and a permanent frown on his face. But that turned out to be harder than expected, due to the fact he was a seventh year, and they were only sixth years. They could tail him all they wanted outside of class, but once he was inside the classroom, that was that.

Despite this, they watched him as closely as they could, but he showed no outward signs of being a Death Eater, except for the fact he always wore long sleeves, but that didn't really prove anything. Harry suggested Draco ask around the girls to see if any of them had seen him at least sleeveless since his return to Hogwarts, but Draco had just given him a degusted look and laughed, before telling him, literally, to fuck off.

So the weekend arrived, and Harry resolved to put the mystery out of his mind for the time being, so that he could concentrate on something equally as important to him. He had asked Hermione to meet him outside the Gryffindor common room on Saturday night when the rest of the school was in the Great Hall, enjoying the feast. At first she was sceptical, asking him over and over again what he had planned, but she had finally agreed. He wanted it to be a surprise.

When Harry arrived outside Gryffindor tower, wearing his invisibility cloak and carrying his Marauders Map, he found Hermione waiting for him, dressed in wonderfully blue robes with silver trim and with her hair put up in a twist with only a few strands falling down around her. She looked stunning, and Harry took the time to admire her, before checking the map for sign of life and, when satisfied they would not be disturbed, he whipped off the cloak.

Hermione jumped, shocked at seeing him just appear out of thin air, and exclaimed: "Harry! What...? How did you...?"

"Invisibility Cloak," Harry replied, holding up the silvery cloak, "I'll explain later."

"...Okay." Hermione agreed, after observing him bewilderingly for a few moments.

"You look beautiful." Harry complimented her, brushing a stray strand of hair from her face.

"Thank you," she said, flushing, "you too. Handsome, I mean, you look handsome."

"Don't I always," Harry said with a grin, and she smiled in response and lightly shoved him.

"Big head," she teased.

"Anyway," Harry said, cutting into their playful banter, "come on - under the cloak. I don't want anyone to see us, we'll probably get in trouble."

"In trouble?" Hermione asked, puzzled. "What are we doing Harry?"

"You'll see," he said, ushering her under the cloak.

"...Okay," she said, trusting him.

She got under the cloak and the two of them made their way down to the entrance hall, passed the Great Hall, and then out through the double doors. They where almost caught b Filch, but he could no more see them under the cloak than he could perform a simple spell.

Harry led her around the grounds, towards the Whomping Willow. She turner her chocolate eyes on him when she first saw the violent tree come into view, but didn't say a word, at first. When it became clear they were heading straight to the tree, she whispered in his ear:

"Harry? Where are you taking me?"

"Hang on," Harry said, pulling out the Marauders Map and checking it again for signs of life. Hermione watched him in puzzlement, looking at the map with curiosity in her eyes. "Okay, stay here one second."

Harry ducked out from under the cloak and seized a tree branch that was placed conveniently on the ground near them, which Harry had placed there earlier in the day. He jabbed at the special not in the tree and the branches stopped swaying.

"Okay," Harry said, grabbing her hand through the cloak, "come on." And he pulled her along, racing towards the hole that was concealed below the old tree.

"Harry?" Hermione squealed in fright, expecting to be pummelled at any moment by the trees aggressive branches.

They reached the trees roots and Harry pointed to the hole. "Go on, I'll be right behind you."

"In there?" Hermione asked, looking at her expensive robes.

"Go on," Harry said, "it's okay. You'll be fine and I'll be right behind you."

"Okay," Hermione slowly lowered herself down and Harry watched her carefully to make sure she was okay. He then followed after her, down into the darkness. His feet hit the ground with a thud and he felt Hermione seize his arm.

"Harry?" Hermione asked, her voice coming from right next to him in the darkness, sounding a little scared. "Where are we going?"

"It's okay Hermione," Harry assured her, "no need to worry. I've been down here loads of time and I've never been hurt. We don't have far to go now, so just be patient, okay?"

"Okay," Hermione whispered, but she didn't let go off his arm as he led her down the dark tunnel.

They had to crouch for the most part as they went down the earthy corridor, following its path when it bent, until eventually they saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Hermione let out a relieved sigh as Harry led her up into the deserted house. Hermione squinted in the light and then looked around at the dilapidated shack with confusion, and then dawning realisation.

"The Shrieking Shack!" she said, turning scared eyes to Harry. "What are we doing here?"

"It's okay Hermione," Harry said, "Like I said before, I've been here loads of times."

"But isn't it haunted?" Hermione asked, peering all around, as if she expected ghosts to just pop out from behind one of the broken pieces of furniture and shout 'boo!'.

"No Hermione," Harry went on, leading her further into the broken down house, manoeuvring around the destroyed furniture, "that was just a legend to make people stay away. This place was built, including the tunnel and the planting of the Whomping Willow, the year my father started at Hogwarts."

"But why?" Hermione asked, now sounding infinitely curious.

"It was built for Professor Lupin," Harry said, leading her up the rickety staircase.

"Professor Lupin?" Hermione gasped, shocked.

"Yeah," Harry continued, "you know he's a werewolf. He was one when he came to Hogwarts, that's why Dumbledore had this place built. He would come here every full moon and have free reign when he transformed, so he wouldn't hurt anybody. That's what all the screaming people heard was about, not ghosts, just Remus."

"How do you know all this?" Hermione breathed. Harry could tell she had many questions she wanted to ask.

"You remember in our third year," Harry started, "when the Ministry had Dementors at Hogwarts to catch Sirius Black."

"Yeah," Hermione replied, completely enthralled in his story as he led her down a hallway.

"Well," Harry went on, "the Ministry thought Sirius was after me. You know, everyone though he killed a load of Muggles and a wizard in support of Voldemort, after my parents where killed."

"I remember," Hermione said, "I read about it in the Daily Prophet. They said he was supposed to have betrayed your parents to You Know Who, but it was the other wizard, right? Peter Pettigrew. The wizard he was supposed to have killed."

"That's right," Harry said, "when I found out I wanted to kill him for betraying my parents. I was talking to Draco one evening, towards the end of the year, and we saw Ron Weasley running across the grounds chasing after a huge black dog. We saw the dog drag him under the Whomping Willow, and, obviously, we were pretty curious, so we followed."

Harry and Hermione came to a stop outside a door, and Harry put his hand on the handle, catching Hermiones eyes. She was staring at him avidly, obviously wanting him to continue with his tale.

"Well?" she asked, not even realising they had come to a stop.

Harry chuckled. "One moment Hermione, we're here."

"Here?" Hermione looked like she had been confounded.

"Yeah," Harry said, pulling down on the handle and opening the door, "what do you think?" he asked, gesturing into the room.

Hermione followed his arm, looking into the immaculately clean room, and then being drawn down to the large blanket spread out on the floor, the picnic basket and the many candles scattered around the room, giving the romantic setting a golden glow. Hermiones mouth hung open and her eyes widened.

"Wow," she breathed.

"You like it?" Harry said, gesturing her inside.

"It's amazing," she said, walking in slowly. Harry followed and shut the door behind them. "You did all this for me?"

"Yeah," Harry said, "mostly. I cleaned the place up, but I didn't make the picnic. Dobby helped me with that."

"Dobby?" Hermione asked.

"Draco's old house-elf," Harry said, "he works at Hogwarts now. I set him free at the end of our second year, to spite Lucius Malfoy. Draco was pissed at me for weeks." He said the last part with a grin.

"You set a house-elf free?" Hermione gaped at him; admiration shining in her eyes, and something Harry couldn't quite place.

"Yeah," Harry said, smiling with bemusement. He was shocked when he felt Hermione practically leap into his arms, wrapping her own around him tightly. "You are an amazing person Harry." She said in his ear, and when she pulled back, she was beaming at him.

"Oh-Kay," Harry said, still confused. What was the big deal? "What's the big deal?"

"You set a house-elf free!" Hermione said with enthusiasm. "I've been trying to come up with a way to better their situation for years. I think it's dreadful how they are treated, don't you?"

"Err..." Harry scratched his head. "Sure. I mean, yeah, it is pretty bad."

"It's awful!" Hermione said vigorously.

"Anyway," Harry said, "Dobby is a friend of mine. When I told him I was going to make a picnic, he offered to make it for me. There's really no stopping him when he puts his mind to something."

"He works at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked. "For free?"

"No," Harry said, "Dumbledore pays him."

"That's wonderful," Hermione beamed.

"Yeah," Harry motioned for her to take a seat on the blanket, "do you want to sit?"

"Sure," Hermione said, sitting down. Harry followed suit. "Will you thank him for me?"

"I'll do better," Harry promised, "I'll take you to he kitchens and you can thank him yourself."

"That would be wonderful," Hermione said, as Harry opened the picnic basket and started pulling out food.

There were meat pies, sandwiches of all kinds, fruit, and pastries, almost anything you would need for a great picnic. Harry piled up all the food on the blanket.

"So," Hermione broke the silence, "what happened after you followed Ron Weasley down the tunnel?"

"Oh," Harry said, still pulling food out of the basket, "well, we followed the tunnel and ended up here, and found Sirius attacking Weasley. Or at least that's what it looked like. Anyway, he wasn't, he was just trying to get at Weasleys rat, which turned out to be Pettigrew."

"Pettigrew?" Hermione gasped in surprise. "He was an Animagus! But wait, what about the dog?"

"I'm sure you can figure it out Hermione," Harry said, grinning at her.

She gasped again. "Sirius Black? He's an Animagus too?"

"Yeah," Harry said, "he is. See, as you know, it turns out Sirius switched with Peter and became my parents Secret Keeper when they went into hiding. But Peter - or Wormtail, as I prefer to call him - was a spy for Voldemort. When Sirius found out what happened he went to kill Wormtail, but Wormtail killed a load of Muggles, shouted that Sirius betrayed my parents, and cut his own finger off before turning into a rat."

"I see," Hermione said, mulling everything over in her head. "Why do you call him Wormtail?" she finally asked.

"Well, that was his nickname," Harry explained, "When he was younger, he was friends with my father, Sirius, and Remus Lupin. They where inseparable."

"Professor Lupin?"

"Yeah," Harry said, "they called themselves the Marauders and made this." Harry pulled out the Marauders Map and showed it to Hermione. As she began examining it, Harry continued his explanation:

"I didn't believe Sirius at first," Harry said, "and probably would have killed him if Professor Lupin hadn't shown up. He disarmed Draco and me and hugged Sirius. He'd figured it out, you see, because he had confiscated the Map from the Weasley twins earlier in the year and saw Pettigrew's name on it. Together, they explained everything to Draco and me and even Ron Weasley. Then they turned his rat into Wormtail. They got a confession out of him and the little rat tried to beg forgiveness from me. Sirius wanted to kill him on the spot, and I was temped, but Lupin said we should take him back to the castle and show him to Dumbledore."

"Prove Sirius innocent." Hermione said, still marvelling over the ingenious map.

"Precisely," Harry said, "so we turned him back into a rat and Remus kept hold of him. But on our way back to the castle Snape came and immediately stunned Remus and Sirius, and in all the commotion, Wormtail escaped. I managed to convince Snape not to take Sirius and Remus straight to the Dementors and instead we went to Dumbledore. Dumbledore used Legilimency on myself, and saw what had happened, and then they revived Sirius and did the same. We used the memories to prove Sirius innocent."

"Wow," was all Hermione could say to that.

"Yeah," Harry said, "and what a bitch. Like I told you, Wormtail came back to bite me in the ass the next year when he helped restore Voldemort."

"Right," Hermione said. "But..." Hermione faltered.

"What is it?" Harry asked. "You can ask me anything Hermione."

"It's just," Hermione began, "it's been bugging me. I read a lot about Animagi, I know, surprise-surprise, Hermione read a book, but don't you have to register. So wouldn't the Ministry know Sirius and Peter where Animagi?"

"Not if they never registered, "Harry explained, "and they didn't. Along with my father, they all became Animagi together so they could join Remus when he went wolfie during the full moon."

"They did?" Hermione was surprised again. Harry couldn't blame her, it was quite a tale, but he was proud of his Father, Godfather and friend's accomplishments.

"Yeah," Harry said, shrugging. "Never underestimate the bonds some people share. It can be a powerful thing."

Hermione nodded her assent.

"You haven't touched your food," Harry pointed out, motioning to the untouched food before his girlfriend, "is something wrong?"

"No," Hermione said, "it looks lovely. It's just; you've been through so much. And I get the feeling things haven't even started yet. It's just a little scary."

"If you want to back out," Harry said, "I'll understand. I'd be pissed, but I'd understand. I told you before Hermione and it won't ever change. I understand how dangerous it is to be involved with me and it's one of the things that make me want to keep us a secret, at least for now."

"I know," Hermione said, "but I don't want to not be with you. I've never felt like this...it's hard to put it into words. But I don't care about the danger, or the secrets. All I want is to be with you."

Hermione caught Harry's eyes over the blanket and found herself leaning forward. Harry watched as she came closer, smiling, and then leant forwards himself, meting her halfway. Their lips touched tentatively, sharing their first kiss. Harry's hands came up to cup her face, enjoying the feel of her soft lips on his, and the touch of her heated skin under his fingers.

They continued to kiss well into the night, forgetting about everything else, and just drowning in each other.

(----)

Piccolo999