AN: I'm back! In two weeks! Yay!

THANK YOU TO MY BETA nocturnal-elia WHO MADE THIS CHAPTER AWESOME

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter and Merlin, many things would change.

Hermione

All courage she summoned a few seconds earlier suddenly vanished as she stared at her History of Magic teacher, wrapped in a bathrobe with an expression of complete confusion. It was that moment she remembered what she looked like.

Before he could even say anything she quickly walked away with her arms folded around herself. "Sorry Professor.. wrong door…" she murmured, as she silently wished that the floor would open up and engulf her.

What was she thinking?! It could be a complete coincidence that Professor Emrys was going by a name that's not his own… and that his real name just happened to be the exact same of a certain historical figure. It was still strange though! Why was Professor Emrys… no… Merlin Ambrosius going by a name not his own? Every person she had met in Hogwarts that went by an untrue identity usually had evil intent, but she got a feeling that Emrys was not like that.

Maybe his real name catches too much attention, so he goes by something else?

It certainly caught her attention, and she, much to her own disappointment in herself, acted upon impulse when the map revealed his name to her. Maybe that was something he wanted to avoid; he wanted to avoid unwanted attention.

Even though, if he was the real Merlin it would certainly explain a whole lot. She didn't know why but Emrys seemed so very odd to her. She didn't know if it was the look in his eyes that told of hundreds of years, or the way he appeared to know much more than he let on.

Her eyes traveled to the map she realized she was still holding. Her professors true name was moving around his bedroom, like he was getting ready for the day. More names started to appear in the hallways and she suddenly wished she also asked for Harry's invisibility cloak as well. She already had to deal with Ro- that red headed jerk calling her ugly, she didn't need the whole school to see her when she looked like she just escaped from a zoo.

Unfortunately, just before she could dart back to the Gryffindor common rooms, a name she didn't notice before made itself known.

"Well, it looks like the Mudblood finally shows it's true form," came the voice of the one and only Draco Malfoy.

Merlin

He watched the figure of his smartest student retreat down the long corridor with his eyebrows raised.

Well, that was weird.

He shrugged and shut his chamber doors, then proceeded to get ready for the day, pushing the odd occurrence Miss Granger presented him with to the back of his mind. Once he was dressed in red turtleneck sweater, blue jeans, black dress shoes, completed with a knitted blue scarf (he never really got out of his color scheme, which is surprising because it has literally been almost two millennia), he opened his windows and looked out at the rising sun over the Scottish mountains. Snow was gently falling and actual blue sky could be seen through broken clouds in the sky. The sight was beautiful, but it only served to raise his anxiety levels.

The weather had been extreme for more than a good few months, and not just for Hogwarts, but for the whole world.

All of the northern hemisphere was practically buried in snow. North America was struggling with keeping their roads clean and industries working properly, cities were being evacuated because they were being met with blizzards and high winds that threatened to blow over houses. Europe had never seen so much snow, in fact, a lot of the southern countries never before had to deal with more than a few inches of snow in December, so feet of snow was defiantly causing problems for many. Russia, who was already used to large amounts of snow, was actually having snow days from school. That, is saying something.

The other half of the world which was currently in their summer were struggling just the same, but in a different way.

The north America's were so hot and humid that the moment anyone leaves their homes their drenched, stinky, and struggling to breath. Jungles were turning orange and smog didn't ever leave the sky because of the lack of wind. Africa was struggling with famine and extreme heat, so much so that no one would be caught dead outside, especially during the day. Asia, usually beautiful and covered in green most everywhere you went, was now so dry and brittle that the smallest breath threatened to blow it away. Australia was getting such extreme heat that people are starting to wonder if it was possible to evacuate a whole country.

The weather wasn't the only thing threatening the world, but so was natural disasters. Never before had there been so many volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tornados, tsunamis, and hurricanes.

It was a surprise that the world was still holding together in one piece.

That's why when Merlin looked at the rising sun and the gentle snow he got anxiety. The weather was normal and non threatening.

Merlin couldn't help but wonder if that was the calm before the real storm.

He gulped and backed away from his window, then made his way towards his bedside table and grabbed his wand. He planned to go to Hogsmeade and snoop around the town in hopes to find out where Katie Bell got the Opal Necklace. If he couldn't find any clues to that mystery, it was still a promising and beautiful day, and he did not want to waste it.

He grabbed a brown jacket hanging on his bedpost and slipped it on before emerging out of his room.

He continued down the corridor and mentally decided to have breakfast at Hogsmeade instead of at Hogwarts. He could get more snooping around done if he left earlier after all.

He was just about to go through the castle doors when a familiar voice called out to him, making him stop in his tracks.

"Oh, going somewhere, Professor Emrys?" Dumbledore asked with a twinkle in his eye. "Care if I join you?"

Hermione

She glared at the bleach-blond Slytherin before she started to speedily walk away. She didn't want to deal with his jerkiness and crap, and she definitely didn't want to deal with him when she looked as she did.

She was surprised when she heard him make an annoyed snort before he walked his separate way down the corridor.

Odd. Usually he'd try and follow her and make fun of her more, so why didn't he now?

Her eyebrows furrowed as she walked towards the common room, folding the map and sticking it in her pocket as she did so. So many things concerning Malfoy had been strange so far during her sixth year, well, besides the chance he could be working as a Death Eater. The first sign of his strangeness was that he hadn't played his position of Seeker once throughout the whole year. Draco was such a Quidditch nerd - like every boy she knew - that it was a shock to the whole school to find out that he made the excuse of being sick to not play.

There was also his appearance that concerned her. His used to be pale and fair skin was now ashy and sickly looking. He had bags under his eyes that suggested loss of sleep. Not only that, but he lost weight as well. His perfectly tailored robes that fit him to the T at the beginning of the year were now slightly too large. She wondered if he was eating properly. She wouldn't really know because she doesn't pay constant attention to the Slytherin table while she's eating her meals like Harry does.

But the most uncharacteristic thing about Draco was his complete and utter lack of desire to annoy, tease, bully, or even glare at the golden trio.

It was unnerving.

As she walked, the thoughts in her head raced and the weight of the Marauders Map in her pocket was impossible to ignore. It appeared that she had ran into a few mysteries and she was suddenly obsessed with finding them out. Who was Professor Emrys really? What was going on with Draco Malfoy?

Too bad she couldn't figure them out until the two week break was over.

She stopped in her tracks and stared ahead of her with a surprised expression. Maybe there is a way to find out what was going on. Completely forgetting her previous mission to the Gryffindor Common rooms, she changed her destination and sped off towards it, not even caring when people gawked at her as she strided by.

Harry

Harry decided it was high time to get up out of his feathery soft bed. As much as he didn't want to leave the comforting sheets and the fluffy pillow that put clouds to shame, he really needed to head back to the Burrow with Ron for his exciting break from his crazy life at Hogwarts.

After giving himself a pep talk into getting up, he worked on his last minute packing as the rest of the boys in the room started to do so as well. He closed his trunk with a sigh once all his items were all accounted for. Well, all items except his map.

He wondered what was taking Hermione so long to get it back to him. He bit his lip nervously at the thought of her accidentally ruining it, even though it was completely out of character for her to do so. The Marauders Map was one of the only things to remind him of his father and godfather, he definitely never wanted to see the day when he could no longer use it because it got lost or ruined in some unfortunate situation like that.

"What, did the carpet steal your candy, Harry?" Came Ron's voice from his own bed.

"Huh?" Harry said, snapping his head to look over at his best friend who had a smug look on his freckled covered face.

Ron stood up from his bed and started to pack away a few items he had hidden under the bed. "You just started to look at the floor really sad, I was worried it offended you somehow," he said with a smirk while playing with a fanged frisbee he pulled out before laying it carefully into his own chest of items.

"Har-har." Harry rolled his eyes. "I was just thinking. By the way, where'd you get that frisbee? I thought all Weasley's Wheezes were banned?"

Ron snorted. "The people who invented this were Fred and George, you know. It's not surprising they found a way to trick the Sneakoscopes."

"I guess that's true!" Harry laughed.

He remembered Hermione telling him about how Fred and George disguised their love potions as perfumes so girls could sneak them in via owl. When he asked her if it was possible if Draco could have disguised the Opal necklace she proceeded to tell him flat out that it was impossible to hide an object filled with so much evil as easy as that. Harry was absolutely sure that Malfoy was a Death Eater, yet even his closest friends defended the ferret! It was so obvious he was devious if not evil, but everyone insisted that Draco was innocent and not capable of being evil, that it was just a teenage rivalry. It frustrated him to no end.

He stood up and straightened his clothes. Well, whatever Draco was up to, he wouldn't have to worry about it for two full weeks. What he did need to worry about was getting his map back from a certain curly haired girl. After putting on Muggles' clothes and tying off some tennis shoes, he walked out of the Gryffindor tower with a new mission; he had to get his map back.

Hermione

She walked out of Professor McGonagall's office with a skip in her step. Her head of house listened to Hermione's proposal and didn't ask any unnecessary questions, (She was even nice enough to ignore Hermione's appearance!) believing the girls reason was to just catch up on some homework. Professor McGonagall promised to send a letter to her parents explaining that Hermione made a last minute decision to stay at Hogwarts the duration of the two week break.

Hermione knew her parents would respect her decision to stay at school and get some 'extra studying' done. It wasn't like her family had plans other than to eat a humble dinner on Christmas day. Her parents were dentists after all, and holidays like Christmas and New Years were unsurprisingly a busy time for their occupation. If she went back home, she'd be stuck in her house alone all day while she worried about what was going on with professor Emrys and Draco while she was away.

She smiled at how extremely fortunate she was to find out Draco was staying during the holiday too. It was a given that the professors were staying as well. So, it would be easy to keep up on both her targets if she stayed put also.

She didn't even realize she still looked like she fell into a ditch until she practically danced back into the Gryffindor common rooms. People stared at her, but she was just too giddy to have the luck of things actually working out to really pay any notice to it.

She hummed as she climbed up to the girls dorms, already forming a plan in her head of how exactly she was going to get the information she wanted out of Professor Emrys and Draco by the end of the break.

The first part of her plan was to, of course, get dressed.

AN: Hope you guys liked that chapter, I sure liked writing it! Did I surprise you guys with Hermione's reaction? I sure hope I did! Look forward to the next chapter!