Before Harry could truly process what was on the walls, he felt himself becoming airborne.

Uh oh. Harry looked down, seeing that in his concentration on the walls, he had let the cloak slip.

He sighed, and let Hermione complete the spell. She threw him from the room, slamming him into the wall beside the bathroom.

"STANDARD BOOK OF SPELLS, GRADE 7!" she screamed at him. Harry winced, remembering the lesson on levitating people. Hermione slammed the door shut, fresh tears streaming down her cheeks. Harry felt like yelling at her in frustration. He wanted to help her, and she was pushing him away. Was this because of all the times he'd pushed her away? If it was, then it wasn't fair: Harry and been through a lot worse than Hermione had. She had no right to give him a lesson – not now, when she needed help.

Numbly, Harry heard the Weasleys returning, their happy voices carrying easily through the patch-work house. He slid down the wall, defeated. He was going to go hide in his room when he heard Ron pounding up the stairs. He knew it was Ron, because the sound was not unlike a stampede of elephants.

Ron hadn't been fooled by Harry's headache. He knew better and he knew that Harry was entitled to a chance of getting Hermione – he himself had tried many times.

Ron also believed that Harry could get to Hermione out, though he was envious of the ability, he cared for Hermione and wanted to know what was wrong.

"So, mate? What'd she say?" he asked, excited and afraid at the same time. He completely overlooked the glum façade that Harry wore – quite openly – on his face.

"She threw me out," he said dully. Ron looked aghast.

"No way!" he yelled in frustration. "Stupid girl!" ; which brought a sob from the other side of Hermione's door.

Harry gritted his teeth. "I'll get to her, Ron. If it's the last thing I do."

Harry had several unsuccessful attempts at drawing Hermione from her room. It was almost as if she'd locked herself in, instead of locking the others out. This idea caused Harry to read the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7 in all its 600 paged glory. Harry sometimes wondered whether the lock on her door was just a clever ruse to get him reading the material. There were other times when he just wanted to saw through the door and take her in his arms (this thought scared him and he chose not to share it with Ron) and tell her that everything was okay.

He even tried climbing in through her window. Ron would give him a signal when he heard her going to the bathroom, and he'd climb in with the cloak. This, however, didn't work.

Ron is not the most intelligent person. So when he heard Ginny clumping around her room, he figured that Hermione was tiptoeing lightly over to the bathroom. He gave Harry the signal and Harry climbed up the wall.

The first obstacle: Hermione's window was closed. Spectacular, Harry thought angrily. He tried to open in and actually managed it up a few inches when it came crashing back down on his fingers. Fleetingly, Harry saw a head of brown hair flash past. Arrg! thought Harry.

By that time, an entire week of their Christmas break was gone, and Harry walked with the same blinding panic that had filled him to the brim before the break. He felt as though a light that had been inside of him had been put out, leaving his soul in an utter darkness that it had never experienced before. Her felt lonely and lost, and that was probably why he finally snapped.

Six days before they had to go back to Hogwarts, Harry was passing Hermione's door and slowed suddenly. He remembered all that he had read about in the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7, and he remembered a particular chapter on enchanted locks. The paragraph had basically talked about a spell that reminded Harry of the spell in front of Dumbledore's office. You said the magic word and voila! You could get in.

Harry tried every word that he thought might mean something to Hermione, her favorite things, places, people…nothing worked.

Finally, it a fit of frustration, Harry started to yell at her.

"HERMIONE! I can't handle this anymore! What is WRONG with you?? We all love you here – why can't you just come out and tell us what's wrong!? You might be forgetting that I have seen and experienced more horrific things than you can count! What do you want us to do? WE LOVE YOU AND WE JUST WANT WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU!!" Harry had to stop, gasping for air, his frustration coming of him in waves. He took a deep breath and started in again:

"What do you want us to do, Hermione? You just have to ask! Do you want us to call your parents?! Is that what you want -?" Harry stopped suddenly. The door had slid open, to reveal Hermione on the bed positively sobbing in anguish. Harry, for he had conjured up lumos, was looking around himself, horrified, at what he finally saw was on the walls.