Two. Hermione

I woke up at ten to eleven the following morning and started running around like a headless chicken grabbing all the things I would need. At eleven I ran downstairs and took out some floo powder from my little purple bag before saying goodbye to my parents.

"If you've forgotten anything send us an owl and we'll get it to you." said mum. I looked at her with raised eyebrows; my mum and dad were muggles and had said the same thing every year, they didn't have an owl but tried to seem like they knew what they were talking about.

I quickly hugged them both, threw some floo power into the fire place, roaring emerald flames filled it. Mum screamed, I did this every year but it still shocked her.

"Love you," I said as I stepped into the flames then clearly said "The Burrow." The odd sensation traveling this way gives you hit me immediatly, soon I landed heavily in the fire place of the burrow.

I stepped onto the dusty blue carpet and before my head had stopped spinning and my eyes registered the Weasley's living room, I was being bombarded by hugs and kisses from Mrs. Weasley who also shoved a piece of toast into my hand, which I took gratefully having been too rushed to eat breakfast.

"Hermione," screeched Mrs Weasley "you look exhausted."

"Oh, no I..."

"Go into Ginnys room and get some sleep." She said. I glanced at Ron and Harry who looked anxious and could tell straight away that there was something they had to tell me.

"Mum!" said Ron. "She's fine, come on 'Mione we need to catch up there's -"

"Ronald! Don't be so selfish, you can tell her the good news when she's had a good sleep. Now come on." Said Mrs Weasley as she shoved me, quite forcefully, towards the stairs and stood there until she saw me enter Ginny's room.

Ginny's room was very small and had cramped into it two single beds, a cupboard and now two Hogwarts trunks, which stood at the end of each bed. I threw myself onto my usual bed at the burrow, the matress was kind of lumpy but to me it was perfect. Everything was perfect at the burrow. Don't get me wrong, I love my parents, but they're both muggles so its great to be in a place that thrives on magic.

I started to wonder what it was that Harry and Ron had to tell me so urgently, maybe they had found another horcrux. They had been working hard all summer to find them and now had only three left, I haven't really been going with them; Harry could tell I felt terrible not being able to stay in school so kindly said that the school needed me there. I went twice though but there was no action; never a deatheater in sight.

I placed my hands behind my back and sunk my head into the soft pillows. Soon I fell into a dreamless sleep.

I woke up later that night to Harry and Ron staring at me. I jumped out my skin and whipped my wand out, they were lucky that it got caught on a loose piece of string from my pajamas or I would have cursed them to an oblivion.

"What the hell are you doing?" I whispered assuming from the darkness outside that everyone else was asleep.

"We've come to tell you our news." said Ron. I suddenly felt very awake and sat slowly down on the bed looking at the boys. Suddenly huge grins appeared across both of their faces.

"Oh my god, you've got one haven't you?" I asked.

"Yes we bloody well have!" Harry practically shouted.

"Which one?"

"The snake," Ron answered.

"WHAT! The snake?" I said, lowering my voice at Ron and Harrys shocked faces. " I thought we agreed that you would go after that one just before Voldermort himself. You two are so stupid. He may not have known you were going after them before but you know what? He does now. What are you doing staying in this house, you've got your whole family in danger."

"Hermione will you please shut up and let us explain?" Pleaded Ron. I sat down and folded my arms, this had better be good, I thought.

"Right," Harry started. " We didn't do it." At my puzzled look he continued. "We don't know who did it in fact –"

He was cut off by Ron who spoke very fast, clearly ecstatic that they didn't have to go after the snake.

"No but whoever they are they are bloody marvellous. They're a genious infact, how the hell they did it we'll never know. They must be out of their minds. We've been thinking who it might be 'Mione but we can't come out with anything. What about you do you think you know of anyone that may have done it, 'cause if you do I wanna meet them and give them a pat on the back because they're amazing we should meet them and get them on our side and..." He said all this in one go and took a deep breath, but before he could carry on I put my hand up.

"Ok," I said, taking it all in.

"Harry, I don't get it."

"Yes, I guess what we said wouldn't have made much sense." He said eyeing Ron worridley. "Well, yesterday we went to go and walk to the shop for Mrs. Weasley, we were walking down the path and there it was."

"There was what?" I asked impatantly.

"The snake," he answered. "just there. On the fence, with a note." He added with a smile.

"What did it say?" I asked curiously. Harry stuffed his hand deep into his pocket and pulled out a screwed up piece of paper. He held it out to me and I unfolded it gently. It was very short and read:

I thought this would be of good use to you

I just want to help there's no need to be suspicious.

A friend.

Two. Draco

Breathe...you can do it.

I sat there staring at the piece of paper before me for a while debating about what I should do. I read the words It's me, Draco Malfoy which were scrawled across it. What was I thinking? There was no way in hell that I could send that, they'd have the order out looking for me in no time.

I crushed the paper together in my hand and threw it against the wall. I slamed my head back against the wooden wall and felt the pain seep through me, but I didn't care. It rarely bothered me anymore. Thats what happens when you become a death eater, you turn numb. I had to learn to not let anything bother me, to be able to kill and forget about it. Father said I'd kill so many people that it'd all blend in to one one day and sooner or later I'd feel nothing afterwards.

I havn't killed anyone yet, and I'm not planning to. I don't want to end up like my father, numb inside; not caring for anyone even his own wife and son.

I looked around me at the damp shed I was staying in. It was a state but had to be better than those icy mountains. I thought they'd be the best place to apparate to and it'd make me harder to find. I spent three weeks there before the death eaters got on my trail. I apparated to the shed, just outside of Hogsmade straight away. I knew I wouldn't be able to spend long there though, they'd come after me sooner or later. I knew they knew I was there they were just biding their time, wondering what it is that I was planning to do.

The fact was, I didn't even know what I was planning to do. All I knew was that I needed help and the one person I could think of that could help me, I planned to murder. Now my only hope was to seek the help of the order, those closest to him; That should go down well, I thought,I can imagine it now: "Hi Macgonagal, Lupin, Umm I know I assisted in the murder of the best and most powerful wizard of our time and possibly the only person who could help defeat Voldermort, but I was just wondering; How would you like to get me out of a tight spot with some death eaters?"

I needed a strategy to show that I'd changed and I'd already put forward some sort of plan which I had almost abandoned until I got some sort of reply. I just didn't think I could go through with it. I couldn't tell her I was me because she wouldn't listen to me but she wouldn't speak to me if I didn't.

I tossed my quill backwards and forwards in my hand, wondering what should be my next move. I decided not to go with honesty, I had to gain her trust. I needed to speak with her face to face.

Just a friend I wrote.

Three. Hermione

The next three days at the Weasley's were full of quidditch and wizards chess. It was a hot day so Ron, Harry, Fred, George and I decided to have another game of quidditch. I went with Fred and George as they didn't classify me as a very good player, so no one cared if one team had three.

I was hovering a few feet above the ground when I felt as though some one was watching me, slowly I lifted my head to find Ron staring at me. Confused, I waved at him and he quickly looked away. A couple of times through the game I felt as though some one was looking at me and each time I turned to find it too be Ron.

I hadn't really spoken to Ron those past three days, I think he had been a bit embaressed after what I had said to him before we left for home just before the summer...

Flashback...

"Um, Ron, I was wondering if I could have a word before we get on the train?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah sure, what's up 'Mione?" He asked, completly unaware.

"Well all the stuff that has happened these past months, in fact these past years, has kind of got me thinking." I swolled hard in an attempt to get rid of the lump that was rising in my throat. "Ok, let me try and put this in a different way." Ron looked at me with a worried look on his face.

"Hermione what's wrong? Whatever it is you can tell me."

"Right." I nodded. "Erm, well you know how I seemed when you and Lavender got together?" He nodded. "Well you understand why that is right?"

"Yes." He answered, clearly not grasping what I was trying to say. But who could blame him, I wasn't exactly making it clear. "Yeah, you didn't like her and I didn't understand why. But Hermione I totally got that and you've apologised , and I told you I agree with you; shes a slag." He smiled obviously amusing himself at bitching about his ex.

"No." I said impatiantly and quite firmly wiping the smile off of Ron's face. "No Ron you don't get it. Ok I've got to do this," I said more to myself than Ron. "Ilikeyou."

"You what?"

"I like you Ron, ok?" He did something I completly never expected. He burst out laughing.

"Well I should hope you do." He answered. "We have been best mates since our first year and.." I cut him off, he clearly wasn't getting me and the only way to get through to him was to do one thing...

End of flashback..

So I kissed him. His eyes opened like saucepans and he walked off in complete shock, avoiding me all the way back to King's Cross. I was actually quite glad when I arrived at the Weasley's for him to be okay with me. But the only time we'd really spoken was when he and Harry were telling me about the horcrux, and he was really excited.

I became very confused and tried to figure it all out but it just made things worse in my head. I was sure Ron could not have liked me back from his reaction but from the way he kept staring at me...oh "I don't get boys." I said to myself, and rather loudly.

Later that night we were joined by Lupin, Tonks and Moody for tea. Meaning that it was a squash in the already packed Weasley house.

"Where's Arthur?" Lupin asked Mrs Weasley.

"Oh you know how it is at the Ministry lately, they called him in about an hour ago but he shouldn't be long."

Across the table Bill, Charlie, the twins and Moody were having a heated disccusion about that night's quidditch scores, when suddenly there was a loud pop that announced the arrival of Mr Weasley. From one glance of him I could see there was something wrong but, Mrs Weasley being happy with the moments she gets to see her husband, quickly ushered him into a seat and pushed a plate infront of him. Clearly I wasn't the only one that noticed the tinge of green in Mr Weasleys comlextion.

"Arthur," Lupin said. "Whats happened." With this everyone looked at him and silenced from the look on his face. Mr Weasley swolled hard as he struggled to release the words from his mouth.

"Hagrid." He managed to say. "Hagrid has been taken by death eaters." There was uproar; I couldn't hear what people were saying for the thumping of my heart was effecting my hearing. My eyes stung as I stuggled to fight back tears and all over the table people dissaperated, obviously going to help.

Anger built up in me and I stood up quickly "I'm going to," I announced.

"No," said Ron and Mrs Weasley, Harry having already left.

"No Hermione you can stay here with me and Ginny, I refuse to let you go, it's too dangerous." With that I felt coldness run through my body, evidently she had cast some sort of spell to stop me dissaperating.

I turned and ran up to Ginny's room where I threw myself onto my bed and sobbed into the pillow until my throat was sore. I stood up and walked over to the mirror. I quietly laughed at the state I was in; my bushy hair was loose and sticking out in every direction while my eyes were red and swollen and mascara streaked.

I slid my hand under my bed and pulled out one of my bags, emptying it on the bed. I looked through my belongings for the wetwipes and slowly began removing the mascara from my face. Half way through replacing everything there was a loud tapping on the window. My eyes widened and I slowly turned my head towards it, jumping up as I saw a strange owl ramming its head defiantly against the window.

After paitently waiting for it to settle down on a shelf I quickly untied the letter, giving the owl a small pat before it left. My insides turned as the thought of finding out who had been writing to me all this time ran through my head. I was dissapointed yet intriged when I saw that it read i Just a friend /i . A friend? But who?

Three. Draco.

Breath...it was just a dream

I awoke suddenly from my nightmare and stared around me at the darkness, expecting him to be standing in the corner. He wasn't. Of course he wasn't, it was just a dream and he would surely never come here to kill me himself. Unless he found out...

I'd been racking my brains thinking of other ways that would go in my favor with the order; once I revealed myself to them. The plan with Hermione didn't seem to be going so well because she hadn't written back and it had been a few days. I was sure I had her now and that the plan could finally move into action. But I guessed I was wrong. I comforted myself with the thought that the new owl I used couldn't find her.

I'd tried other things to, like get them things that would help them out, but I'd had no success, apart from one thing. One very big thing. I killed that bloody snake. It was as much for me as it was for them though. I hated the thing, it was like it could see right through me. I was sure it would tell its master everything I'd done because he'd try and send me on the most painful tasks. Voldemort himself could not read my mind, I only ever saw him face to face once. Just before the night I was meant to kill Dumbledore. He sat me down and told me, in not so many words, that if I didn't do it I would die. So afterwards all I could think about was getting away from them and I thought the snake knew. I ran two weeks after I was meant to kill him, I was always heavily watched, he must have known. He was going to kill me anyways, just wanted me to do as much of the dirty work as possible before he did. But I never did it, some of it Snape did. For some reason he refused to let me fail, didn't want me dead so when I said I couldn't do it, he would. Or that stupid git Pettigrew, I told him his master would reward him greatly. Idiot.

There was a sudden whoosing sound and an owl landed on my lap causing me to jump. Yes! It was her. A Friend whos name is? And I know you how exactly?.

Atleast this plan was finally starting to take off, maybe there was hope after all. Now there was just the problem of getting her to keep talking to me. I obviously couldn't tell her it was me, but I couldn't sound like I was some weirdo that just randomly decided to write to her. I sat contemplating what to do for about half hour before it came to me. I decided to say; Damon, an admirer. Nice to meet you Miss Granger. Sorry if i worried you. I read it over and smirked to myself, surely she wont be able to resist knowing more. A boy, who's not a Weasel or duck footed Bulgarian, paying interset in her?