The sun hit Harry's face like a laser beam, momentarily blinding him.

"Why didn't I close the curtains last night?" he thought angrily to himself as he struggled to get out of bed.

He walked hunched over to the window on the other side of the room and violently closed the curtains.

Like a zombie Harry fumbled his way to the end of the room to inspect himself in the mirror.

What he saw was a messy-haired 19-year-old with bags under his eyes. He picked up his glasses on the dresser under the mirror and put them on. Then after re-studying his reflection gave a dissatisfied "Hmpf!"

Suddenly feeling a bit woozy Harry headed back to his bed. When he reached it he collapsed onto it in a heap burying his head in the pillow.

He had come back from a particularly gruelling night of work at the ministry and promptly plummeted into a nightmarish sleep.

That had been happening a lot lately, dreams of impending doom and grief. After Voldemort had gone into deeper hiding last year Harry had been wondering whether these dreams were premonitions of his return.

Voldemort's retreat into total anonymity had caused Harry's job of late to become more demanding.

Everyone expected more of him since he was the "chosen one"; some people were beginning to doubt the prophecy, even Harry himself was suspicious of it.

"I wish Sirius and Dumbledore were here," Harry sighed and rolled over onto his back. "They'd know what to do"

There was frantic scratching at the window.

Harry moaned and rolled away from the window. Then hooting joined the scratching.

It was Hedwig.

Harry heavily exhaled and went to open the window.

He had barely opened the window six inches when the snowy white owl flew in and landed on her perch at high speed.

Harry closed the window and stalked over to sit on the end of his bed.

He sat down a little too heavily and consequently he nearly bounced off the bed. After regaining his position on the bed Harry just stared at his owl preening herself, but not really seeing her.

He was off in a world all of his own.

There was a loud "thump!" and suddenly Harry was standing bolt upright and alert. He lunged for his wand by his bed and raced down stairs. Jumping down them three or more at a time.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

When he entered his front room he saw a familiar face smiling up at him.

"Ow! Why can I never visit your house without hurting myself?" joked Sarah as she rubbed her head and stepped quickly out of the fireplace.

Sarah was more or less part of the Weasley family now. They had kindly taken her in, and treated her as part of the family.

Harry, Ron and Hermione had first met her in their final year at school. She had turned up at Hogwarts under suspicious circumstances following the searches through Europe for Death Eaters, the previous summer.

She was surprisingly in their year.

They had at first thought her just a very tall first year; but then she had turned up in the Griffindor seventh year's dormitory.

Sarah hadn't been the only new edition to their school, their were quite a few new faces in various years. In fact they had received another new edition to their year, Nathaniel Kye, who had become a Ravenclaw.

At the start of year feast they had received no explanation from their new head mistress. So many of the students not receiving conclusive responses from their new peers, from the continent, had decided to become sleuths.

Hermione had become one of those people. Harry still not quite (understandably) over the death of Dumbledore, took little interest in the new students. Ron of course had quizzed both Sarah and Nathaniel but had been oddly opposed to Hermione's further detective work.

Lavender had confided in Pavarti that she thought Ron might like Sarah now, having maybe given up on Hermione. Pavarti found this hard to believe. Lavender was insistent that her information was true.

Little did she know she would be proved wrong later…

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

However both Sarah and Nathaniel had proven themselves well accomplished in their studies.

Nathaniel excelling in Defence Against the Dark Arts; and Sarah excelling in Transfiguration and Divination. They were strong rivals for Hermione, Harry and Draco.

Vexed from her new competition Hermione was even more determined to find out about these new members of school.

But due to the lack of information on the happenings in Europe in the Prophet and other publications Hermione found her task a little harder than she first expected.

Then it dawned on her; she had a reliable source in the heart of it all Viktor Krum.

Realising this Hermione leapt from her seat by the fire in the common room. Receiving odd stares from everyone in the room she darted through the portal and out into the corridor.

At that moment she remembered that she needed parchment and a quill, so she hurridly ran back to the Portrait of the Fat Lady but before she could mutter the password out came Harry and Ron.

"Hermione what on Earth?"

"Yeah, you've been acting rather odd this year," said Harry.

"Oh, its nothing don't worry," and before either of the boys could protest she darted back through the still open portrait hole into the common room.

"What the heck was that about?" asked Ron staring after Hermione.

"I don't know but you know how she is. If we ask her she'll flatly deny everything, like she did just now."

"Well I think she's up to something,"

"Don't worry I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later," Harry gestured for Ron to follow him back inside the common room.

Hermione dodged and manoeuvred her way through the common room and up the stairs to the dormitory.

She burst through the door, startling Lavender, and blazed over to her trunk at the end of her bed. After rummaging through it for a while Hermione found some spare parchment, and a self-inking quill. Darting past a bewildered Lavender Hermione made her way to the door.

On her way out she encountered Harry and Ron again, they were heading up to their dormitory.

"Hold on a second Mione, where are you going?" asked Ron with a bemused expression on his freckled face.

"Somewhere," Hermione attempted to get pass Ron who was blocking her way.

"Nuh uh, your not going anywhere until you tell us whats going on," Ron thrust his head at Harry on the "us", and crossed his arms and put on an face that he thought was determined.

Hermione looked Ron up and down, raised one eyebrow and stomped on the arch of his foot. This caused Ron to let out a yell and hop out of her way while holding his foot in agony; it also caused Harry to burst into raucous laughter and keel over.

Seeing that both of them where out of action Hermione sprinted down the staircase, out of the4 common room and towards the owlery.

When Harry had finally calmed himself Ron was sitting on the step rubbing his sore foot muttering "She is going to get it now. I can't believe she did that!"

"Wait here Ron I'll be back in a minute,"

"What ever," grunted Ron clearly in a sulk about his foot.

A few minutes later Harry emerged from the dormitory with his invisibility cloak and the Marauders Map.

"She's going to the owlery, we have to hurry if we are to catch her. Oh come on Ron!" Ron stood and joined Harry underneath the cloak.

When the pair made it to the owlery they found Hermione sitting in a corner concentrating on a letter.

Under the cloak they moved until they were standing right behind Hermione. Both of them strained to see what she was writing. Ron was filled with anger when he saw who it was addressed to.

Unable to help himself Ron blew their cover by saying "So your still writing bloody love letters to that loser?"

Hermione jumped about a mile in the air. "Who the hell is here? Ron, Harry is that you!"

"Good one Einstein," said Harry slapping Ron on the back of the head.

"Hey did you even see what she was writing? I'll kill Krum!"

"Stop it you two!" Hermione who had moved over to the other side of the room marched over and pulled the cloak off the bickering Harry and Ron.

"Why did you come up here? To spy on me?"

"Well, yeah kind of," muttered Ron to the floor. He had begun shuffling his feet nervously.

"What he means Hermione, is that we have been worried about you, because you've been acting so weirdly,"

"Yeah, is it because you've been talking to that filthy Krum again? I know it's a love letter I just know it!"

"No it's not so kindly leave me alone,"

"Then why are you sending him a letter?"

"None of your business Ronald Weasley!"

"Come on Mione, please tell us what's going on, we're your best friends,"

Hermione looked at Harry and then at Ron, she sighed. "Well if you must know its about Sarah and Nathaniel,"

"What about them?" chorused Harry and Ron.

"Oh come on! Don't you think its strange all these new students from Europe arriving at our school after the raids and searches? You can't seriously think its all just one big coincidence?" said Hermione very loudly. She was getting rather annoyed.

"You don't know if their placement here had anything to do with the searches and raids Hermione,"

"That's why I'm writing to Viktor. We barely know anything about their past Harry, as a matter of fact we don't even know anything much about the raids or any of the stuff that happened over there this summer either,"

"So what your asking Krum to be your little snitch over there?" voiced Ron; who took his eyes of the far wall and looked expectantly at Hermione.

"Well yes if you must put it like that, I guess I am,"

"If you have to," said Harry with a shrug.

"Can't you learn to keep your nose out of other people's business Hermione?"

"Stop being so stubborn Ronald,"

Seeing that they should probably leave Harry took Ron by the shoulder and steered him towards the door. Just before he turned to leave Harry turned around "You'll tell us if you find out anything won't you? We'll have to tell them about it you know."

"Yeah I know,"

Satisfied Harry turned and followed Ron back to the common room, leaving Hermione to write the letter.

………………………………………………………………………………………..

By the time she and Viktor had uncovered something the group had taken Sarah under their wing and Harry in particular had grown quite close to Nathaniel.

Nathaniel had turned out to be a fairly good Quidditch player and had secured a place on the Ravenclaw team as a chaser.

Sarah had come from Switzerland and Nathaniel form Denmark. Both spoke perfectly good English but they hadn't attended Beauxbatons or Durmstrang, instead they had been home schooled.

By the Christmas holidays Hermione had found out about why all these new students were there and she had also found out some very disturbing things about some of the newcomers.

………………………………………………………………………………………..

As was the tradition Harry and Ron were staying for Christmas, and so were Nathaniel and Sarah. Hermione decided that she should confront them soon so she sent an owl home to her parents telling them she would stay also.

On Christmas Eve Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Sarah went to the Room of Requirement for a little Yule Time party.

Using the Marauders Map the four of them snuck out of the Griffindor common room.

When they had safely made it to a side corridor, they checked the map for Filch or any teachers. Seeing Flitwick shuffling on the same level as the room they waited for a few minutes before preceding carefully to the room.

When they reached it Hermione did the pacing and the door appeared; quickly the four of them rushed into the room.

They had been there a few minutes setting up when Harry arrived with a guest, Nathaniel or as they called him now Nat.

Ron looked up briefly with a mouth full of food. Ginny smiled at Harry and welcomed Nat. Sarah moved over to make space for Nat and Harry beside her.

Hermione saw her chance and when everyone was settled she confronted the group with her findings.

Her speech was met with dead silence and shocked faces. Hermione hadn't told Ron and Harry first.

Nat and Sarah could hardly believe that she had found out.

Sarah was on the brink of tears, not because Hermione's words had been hurtful but because they had brought terrible memories to the surface.

"How…how…did you find out?" asked Nat, still in shock.

"I have sources. We simply searched long and hard and had to come our own conclusions at some points. I'm so sorry Sarah I didn't know…" Sarah who had actually burst into tears just nodded. She was now being comforted by Ginny.

"Well actually there's a fair bit more that you don't know. And I guess that now is as good a time as any to tell you all about it…Sarah shall I tell them everything?" Sarah nodded in conformation.

Harry and just stared first at Hermione then at Sarah and then at Nat, in total bewilderment. Ron swallowed his food in one gulp and did the same as Harry, looking around at everyone. Ginny looked intently at Nat waiting for his explanation.

"Where to start? Well of course everything Hermione said is true…"