Since that night Harry and Hermione were spending all of their free time together. They were either doing their homework or spending time talking on walks around the grounds.

Hermione one night found herself in the library alone trying to do her potions essay, but her mind just wouldn't concentrate. It was struck on what was happening between her and Harry.

They'd become best friends in their first year after the troll attack. Over the last few years she had found herself helping him with his problems and worrying about his health. She always told herself that he was a brother to her, but now she wondered.

She always thought she liked Ron more as a possible boyfriend. After all he did stick up for her and tried to be the boy of her dreams. But since the start of summer problems had arisen and had only gotten worse since their return to school.

Ron was way too possessive for her taste. He would lose his temper at the slightest thing. He had no ambition or the drive to do anything with his life. Then there was how he expected her to practically do his homework so he could play Quidditch.

She had tried to talk with him about what they were going to do when they graduated. He would always shrug his shoulders and tell her he had plenty of time to decide. His lackadaisical attitude had become too much for her to deal with any longer and then he had the audacity to order her not to be friends with Harry. To her that had been the last straw and she told him where to go.

It felt good these past couple of weeks. She didn't have to deal with an egotistical, self-centered, lazy prat she told herself. But then something strange started to occur.

Now she found herself having romantic feelings towards Harry. He worried about how she was feeling and would let her talk about whatever was on her mind. He never tried to tell her what to do. In fact he allowed her to be herself.

"Did she love him or is she trying to hide the pain she felt about Ron," she spoke softly to keep from having anyone hear her.

Harry was walking back from his training with Dumbledore his mind wasn't on the training, but on Hermione.

He always liked her. She was a great friend who stuck by him no matter what people said. Yes he did find her to be a bookworm and more by the books when it came to the rules, but that was what he liked about her. She was fun to be around, willing to listen to him and do whatever she could to help him.

His feelings had grown over the summer toward her and had gotten stronger since she had believed him about his dreams. At the time he thought that his feelings were just a stronger friendship, but now he wasn't sure and this had begun to confuse him these past few days.

He absent-mindedly gave the password and entered the common room. Still lost in his thoughts he made his way up to his room. Taking off his clothes, he threw on a night a night robe before lying down on his bed.

Ginny had seen the changes that were happening to Harry and Hermione and was very unhappy about them. She knew that the two probably liked one another just by the way they were acting. She wasn't stupid and could see how Harry smiled at Hermione; it had been how he used to smile at her.

The one part she was unsure of was it the other knew how the other felt. She wanted to strangle Hermione for getting in the way and for publicly breaking up with her brother. This was just unforgivable to her and she would get her revenge. And in the process of this she would get her Harry back and then her original plan would succeed.

One night on her prefect's patrol she was trying to formulate her plan. She was furious from earlier when she saw Harry and Hermione come walking into the common room, they were laughing about something. She'd been about to give Hermione her famous bat-bogey hex when Ron gave a loud snort before tearing out of the room.

She stopped suddenly at the top of the corridor that lead down towards the dungeons an evil smirk appeared on her face. Her plan had just come together as to how she'd get Harry back.

"In the process, I will make that know-it-all pay for her getting involved." Ginny sneered "she'll rule the day she ever met me."

Lost in her thoughts and plans she soon became awake of a clanking sound coming up from the darkened corridor. Raising her wand she said, "Lumos Maxima." A bright light soon appeared from the tip of her wand illuminating the corridor.

She looked around trying to see who was coming toward her, half expecting to see a student out of bed. But to her surprise, the corridor was empty. Perplexed at this she now started to look around more since she could still hear the clanking sound. Then she saw it scurrying around the corner.

A feral grin spread across her lips as she pointed her wand at the rat and shouted "stupefy." The rat suddenly froze in it tracks.

Walking over to the stunned rat, she bent down and picked it up by the tail. She could clearly see a metal paw and a balding spot on its head.

"Hello Wormtail, I am pleased to see you. You are going to be the first piece of my plan in getting Harry back." She calmly told the rat before pocketing him in her robes and heading back to the common room.

As she strolled into the common room she looked around trying to find Harry. She noticed that the room was empty of students. "Well that is as it should be since it was after nine o'clock," she thought. But Harry usually was still here reading or doing his homework.

Giving a huff she started towards the stairs to his room. She had to get Wormtail to him if she was to get Harry pleased with her. She had nearly crossed the room when she spotted Harry in the corner.

She noticed his head was slumped forward; his glasses had fallen off the bridge of his nose. He had a book open that was lying across his chest.

It was obvious to her that he'd fallen asleep. She couldn't help, but watch his chest slowly rise and fall with each breath. He was so cute as he slept she told herself. He would be hers once again, especially now with her gift. It was of course the one thing she knew he wanted more then anything.

She was about to wake Harry when she felt the rat starting to awaken. Quickly, she grabbed the rat and stupefied him again. He was not going to get away and ruin this part of her plan.

"Harry wake up, "Ginny called softly.

Harry gave a moan and shifted slightly in his chair.

"Harry Potter wake up now," Ginny shouted sounding exasperated.

Upon hearing someone shouting his name, he shot up with a start. Pushing his glasses back in his place he looked around wildly until his eyes fell on Ginny. With a groan, "What do you want," he asked clearly upset.

"I have a surprise for you," she replied a huge smile on her face.

"I don't want anything from you. How many times must I tell you to leave me alone," he asked sounding cold.

"This is something you will want. Just trust me," still giving him a huge smile.

"Look, I've told you I don't trust you and there is nothing you can do to change my mind. Now leave me alone."

"Fine, if you don't want the rat then I'll take it to professor Dumbledore myself," she said flatly.

At hearing the word rat he straightened up quickly. "Rat, what rat," he asked now sounding curious.

"This one," and with that she pulled Wormtail out of her pocket.

Harry's eyes grew in size at seeing the traitorous rat. His green eyes were gleaming with satisfaction. He reached forward and snatched the rat from her hands.

He grabbed his quill from the nearby table and transfigured it into a glass jar. With one fell swoop, he dropped the rat head first into it and closed the lid.

Harry stood up and headed for the portrait hole he was going to take the traitor to Dumbledore. This was a lucky break he thought; now they would get some answers and Sirius would be exonerated.

"Harry, aren't you even going to thank me," Ginny huffed.

"Oh yeah thanks for capturing him," and with that he stepped through the portrait.

"Why I never," she exclaimed glaring at the portrait.

Harry ran down the corridor oblivious to the late hour. He was too excited at the turn of events. For once things seemed to be looking up for the boy.

He raced around the corner that leads to the gargoyle statue when he rammed into someone. He fell backwards landing on his rear.

"Mister Potter, what do you think you are doing out past curfew. Obviously you are up to no good as usual," Snape sneered. "Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention tomorrow," he smirked.

"Professor I am not up to no good. I have to see Professor Dumbledore right away," Harry stated picking himself up and making sure the jar didn't break.

"Whatever it is Potter it can wait until tomorrow."

"No it cannot. I have Wormtail here in this jar and I need to give him to the Headmaster," Harry replied sounding irritated.

Snape arched a brow in surprise. "Let me see that," he said.

Harry nodded and raised the glass to show the professor.

"Now please let me through," Harry said and started to go by the man.

"Potter you are arrogant and if you think I'm Just going to step aside, you are surely mistaken. Now follow me," Snape sneered.

The potions master spun around his cloak billowing around him as is a breeze had appeared out of nowhere. Harry followed him quickly the whole time silently cursing himself for his bad luck in coming across the dreaded potions master.

Five minutes later Harry found himself sitting across from Dumbledore. Who he saw was wearing a yellow dressing gown and looked as if he'd been awakened from a deep sleep.

Harry felt bad about having woken the professor up, but he knew it was for a good reason. He sat there quietly holding the glass jar waiting for Dumbledore to speak.

"Harry, I see that you are holding a glass jar with what looks like a rat in it. I can only assume that it must be Peter Pettigrew," Dumbledore remarked his blue eyes twinkling.

"Yes professor it is him."

"Severus, will you go and bring back some Veritaserum. I believe we should interrogate him before we turn him over to the ministry." Snape gave a slight nod before he stormed off towards the dungeons.

"Now Harry care to tell me how you captured him?"

"Professor I really don't know. You see I'd fallen asleep in the common room and Ginny came in. She woke me up and handed me a stunned rat." Dumbledore nodded in understanding.

Dumbledore entwined his long fingers and placed his chin on them. He gave Harry a smile and his eyes twinkled madly. Harry could see that he was quite excited at this sudden turn of events.

A few minutes later Snape reappeared carrying a small bottle. He clearly saw Wormtail now sitting in a chair bound by thick black ropes. He sat diagonally so that he was facing Dumbledore and Harry. His little beady eyes were filled with panic and fear as they were shifting from the Headmaster to Harry. There was a trickle of sweat dripping off his brow. It was clear that he couldn't transform into his animagus form and thus was now stuck.

Severus walked over and administered three drops before he melted into the shadows. He was for once in his life nervous about this interrogation of course he was always nervous when he was summoned by the Dark Lord, but this time he was feeling this way around Dumbledore.

Soon Peter's eyes glazed over as the serum took its hold on him.

"What is your name?" Dumbledore asked.

"Peter Pettigrew," the man replied in a monotone voice.

"What is your animagus form?"

"I am a rat."

"Are you a Death eater?"

"Yes I serve the Dark Lord," was the reply.

"Why are you here at Hogwarts?"

"My master ordered me to find out how that fire appeared causing his plan to fail."

"When are you to report to Voldemort," Dumbledore asked.

"Not until I have gained the information he seeks."

"Were you James and Lilly Potter's secret keeper?"

"Yes I was." Harry breathed a sigh of relief at this admission.

"Did you betray them to Voldemort?"

"I was going to."

"What" Harry exclaimed. Dumbledore waved a hand at him in a gesture to calm down.

"What do you mean you were going to?" Dumbledore now asked.

"I don't know. I thought I did, but Voldemort punished me because he had to find out from someone else."

"When did he do this?"

"It was the day after he was resurrected at the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

"Did he tell you who this other person was?"

"No."

"Did you kill the Muggles and fake your own death?"

"Yes I had to escape or Sirius would have killed me."

Dumbledore nodded before turning to Harry. "It seems we have gained some good news and some perplexing news as well."

"Professor this doesn't make any sense," Harry said clearly confused.

"Yes I am aware of that. It does seem as if someone else betrayed your parents."

"But sir he admitted that he has been the one to betray my parents that night in the Shrieking Shack," Harry replied.

"Can you recall his exact words," Dumbledore asked.

"The Dark Lord… you have no idea… he has weapons you can't imagine. I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you and Remus and James. I never meant for it to happen." Harry nodded his head. "Yes I believe that is what he said."

"Very interesting," Dumbledore replied.

"Wait a minute he didn't actually admit it," Harry said now understanding what Dumbledore was getting at.

"Precisely my dear boy, He was afraid that somehow he had been tricked into believing he had told Voldemort."

"But what if that's true, how are we going to find out who betrayed my parents?"

"That is something we will have to work on. Now I suggest you go back to your dorm and get some sleep." Harry nodded before standing up to leave.

He reached his room, but found he wasn't tired. His mind was to busy trying to absorb what had just taken place in Dumbledore's office. It made no sense, everything they had known was now false. Then there are the strange dreams he'd been having since the start of the term. Somehow they were all connected he thought. But how and what did it all mean, he just didn't know.

Soon his head began to ache from the heavy thinking causing him to yawn and decide to ignore the sudden revelations. He would talk with Hermione about this tomorrow he decided as he closed his eyes to try and get some sleep.

The following afternoon Harry and Hermione were sitting outside by the lake. They both a free period and this was the best time he thought to tell her about the previous nights events.

Hermione listened politely surprised by what he was telling her. It all seemed too surreal to her. His dreams telling him that Peter wasn't the one who betrayed his parents and now confirmation from the source itself was all to much for her.

She felt sorry for him and wished there was someway she could help him other then looking through books. But that was the only thing she knew they could do.

"You know maybe we should go through the yearbooks and see is we can narrow down who we know are Death eaters that went to school with your parents. We can also contact Remus and see if he knows of anyone else," she said.

"I don't know if we should tell Remus this. It was bad enough on him when he believed Peter was the betrayer, but now it could be worse," Harry said staring off into the horizon.

"I understand Harry, but don't you think Dumbledore will tell him in the next order meeting."

Harry nodded, "Yes he probably will. Maybe it would be better if he finds out that way."

"Well we can still look in the yearbooks," she said standing up and brushing leaves and dirt off her robe." "We better get going if we don't want to be late for Dinner."

Harry didn't answer her, but got up and followed her back to the castle. Both unaware that they were being watched by a red headed girl with hate showing in her eyes.

That night at Dinner Dumbledore made a surprising announcement "I would like to inform all of you that we will be having a Yule Ball. The professors and I decided that with the current war you should all have a little fun." A collective moan rang out through the students.

"Yes I am aware that some of you are dismayed at this news. But let me assure you that it is not mandatory to come. It will be open to third years and above. For those in the first and second years as well as those who choose not to attend there will be parties in your common rooms. Now the ball will be held the first Saturday in December and if you choose to go to the ball you must have a date. With this news I suggest we all sit down and enjoy the delightful food the house elves have prepared."

Over the course of the next few weeks Hermione found herself feeling depressed. Since the announcement of the Yule ball she began questioning herself about her looks and her attitude. If this had been last year she would never thought twice about herself since she would have been going with her boyfriend. But now she didn't have one and knew that she probably would not be asked by anyone.

She was that she wasn't pretty not like Lavender was. Her brown hair was always frizzy and bushy due to its thickness. No matter what she did to it, it was always like this. Then there was her skin. It wasn't the smooth, soft color that most other girls had and of course she wasn't filled out nor have a petite shape as the others had.

The strange thing she thought was that she knew of a boy whom she did like. One who never tried to change her and instead accepted her for who she truly was. He was kind, thoughtful and generous. He never expected anything other then her friendship.

And thinking of this boy had her realize that it was Harry, her best friend. He truly was the perfect gentleman; respectful, caring, protective and loving to a fault. He would always put his friends and strangers above his own needs. He was a boy he deserved much more then he had gotten she mused.

She had to admit that she did have some feelings towards him and probably always had. But she had tried to hide them by looking at Harry as just a friend nothing more. She had been wrestling with these feelings for awhile now but would push them as far back in her mind as possible, but now she had to admit that they were there.

With this admittance, she now wanted to go to the Yule ball more then ever. She wanted to go with Harry, to tell him how she felt. But then there was the downside and that was that he probably wouldn't want to go nor did he share them same feelings as she did. And this made her sad.

Harry on the other hand had all ready made his mind up and was not going to the ball. There was just too many things of more importance that he needed to concentrate on. Besides, to him it would be a waste of time, trying to find a date and then getting dress robes and spending time trying to dance.

He wasn't stupid about having to find a date; he knew that Hermione would probably go with him even if it were just as friends. But he didn't want to get in the way of her finding a nice boy who wasn't constantly putting people in danger. But something bothered him about this way of thinking.

There was a part of him that really liked Hermione, a part that wanted to be more then the friends that they currently were. He had always found her to be a very likeable person who stood by him no matter what the situation was. She never tried to treat him like some God who was the Savior of the Wizarding World. She just treated him like any other person, bugging him about doing his homework or trying to get him to relax and have some fun. These thoughts were making ihis feelings even stronger then they had been before when he had been thinking about their friendship.

There was still one problem he thought, and that was did he want to accept these feelings. Did he want to take the chance that either she wouldn't feel the same way or if she did, then did he want to take a chance and possibly ruin their friendship. He just didn't know what to do, but he would have to really think hard about his feelings.

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During this entire time both Ron and Ginny were secretly working on separate plans that would insure their success in getting Harry and Hermione back. Ron for once had actually come up with a plan that would not only win Hermione back but also ruin Harry in the process. He knew it was a devious plan, but it would make him finally be the one standing on top instead of Harry. And this made Ron an extremely happy person.

Ginny on the other hand had been going through several books in the library looking for the perfect spell that would help her finally get Harry back as her boyfriend. And in the process she would not only humiliarte but destroy the know-it-all's confidenance once and for all.

Finally she found the perfect way, but had to figure out how she would do it without getting caught. She knew if she were to get caught that she could be and would probably be expelled. Thinking hard on this small problem a name finally popped into her head and she smiled at herself. He would be the perfect one to help her and he'd do it just to get back at them, she thought to herself.

A/N Wow this is my longest chapter yet. I had a lot to put into this one. I do hope that you all liked it, especially the various scenes with Harry and Hermione regarding what was happening with their feelings. Please Review, I am really interested in hearing your thoughts on this chapter.