Thank you all for your reviews. It filled my inbox quite nicely. (I am addicted to reviews, I admit it.)

Avanell – You were right Ron is the one who figures it out. I hope you do enjoy this chapter.

NairobiDawn – The nemesis is not gone, though absent from this chapter. Here is the part of them figuring the message

Desepere Romantique – Well I had to leave you tingling, I take it that it worked.

Tefy – partially yes, she couldn't let the nemesis know what she was up to.

Ana – yes, she will put up a fight with the thing, Ron will be a help in the matter.

Dancerrdw – one again thank you for reading

Isabella Heart – I tried to get this one out as quick as I could. Still had to go through the grammer. That usually takes me a day. I have to not look at it for a bit of time then come back and read it to find all of the errors (believe me there were a lot)

Ginny278 – thank you once again, I am glad you are involved with this story.

Sony89 – welcome to this story. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you enjoyed the rest

Monnbeam – here is the next for your enjoyment

Chapter 11 Understanding the Message

That evening Alice walked into St. Mungo's and to the front desk, just as she always did. This evening was different though. Waiting on her was one of the nurses from her ward.

"Katherine sent me to collect you." The nurse said to Alice, with her head bowed. "She said it was important."

"Then I suppose I should go see what it is." Alice said surprised that Katherine had sent the nurse down to get her.

They both headed upstairs and to the Janus Thickey ward. Alice had immediately gone to Hermione's room. She was curious about an explanation.

From the door way, Alice saw Katherine standing by Hermione's bed. Besides Katherine was a rolling tray with pieces of parchment and an ink bottle on it.

Hermione was sitting up in the bed supported by her pillows.

"Alice, you won't believe it. I hope she hasn't stopped again." Katherine said beckoning her inside.

Katherine put a piece of parchment on the food tray she had on Hermione's lap. She then dipped Hermione's pointer finger into the ink and placed it just over the parchment.

Alice stood and watched in silence. She was curious has to what had occurred to cause the usually reserved Katherine to be giddy.

Once Hermione's finger was in position, Katherine lowered her torso so she could look straight into Hermione's eyes. "Alice is here." She said gently. "It is very important that she sees the message too. She will help me get it to Ron and Harry."

Alice watched with undivided attention.

Hermione moved the finger that had been doused with ink across the paper. When she reached the end of the parchment, she stopped.

Katherine took a towel from the tray and cleaned the ink off of Hermione's finger. She then removed the food tray from Hermione's lap.

She gathered the parchments from the rolling tray and gave them to Alice.

"It started this afternoon, outside." Katherine said. "I was talking with her. I told her that if she wanted to deliver a message we were listening." She was talking rather quickly. "She then tried to speak. Then her finger started tracing around. I put a parchment on her lap and followed where her finger went with a quill." Katherine pointed to the parchment that she had traced in the garden.

Alice looked over the parchments. "She's been doing this all afternoon then?"

"Sometimes she stops. You have to talk with her a bit before hand. She hasn't tried speaking again, but look at what she wrote. I know that they don't make any sense, but they are all roughly the same."

Alice looked perplexed at the parchments. There were difference, but they were exactly the same.

"I'm going to look over these tonight and see what I can make of them." Alice said. "You did the right thing again today Katherine. I think you should go home and get some sleep now."

"Have a good night then." Katherine said leaving.

Alice put down the parchments on the rolling tray and walked over to Hermione. She started to place her back into the bed properly. "I don't quite understand the message, but I will look it over." She said gently. "I will also let your gentleman know."

She had spent most of the evening looking over the parchments. The writing did not make any sense.

In the morning Alice tried to get Hermione to write a new one, but to no avail. She then began to wonder, if something was going on inside of Hermione. Something that would prevent her or, or even allow her to send the messages.

Alice finally decided to see if Harry or Ron might be able to make sense of the message.

In the morning she sent an owl asking them to show when they were done with work today. There was no reason to wait until next Wednesday to let them know.

Harry was sitting at his desk when an interoffice message landed on the desk. The markings on the outside had suggested that it had been delivered by owl originally.

He opened the letter and read it. It was from Alice asking Ron and him to see her when they were done with work.

Alice had never sent a letter asking for Harry or Ron to see her after work. He immediately sent an office message to Ron telling him to meet him at the foyer after work. He did not mention anything else. It would have made Ron on edge for the rest of the day.

Work seemed to drag on after that. Harry thought the clock had started moving backwards.

At the end of the day Ron met him in the foyer. Harry explained about the letter from Alice. Ron wondered if she had another bad episode. Harry said the letter did not explain that they both should just go over there.

Katherine was waiting for them outside the wing when they arrived. She immediately brought them to Alice's office.

Alice stood and greeted them when they came in. "I'm glad that you came." She said to them. "Please sit."

"I take it this isn't bad news." Harry said noting Alice's behavior.

"No it is not." Alice said sitting down. "It has been my belief for some time now that Hermione would at sometime give us a message if she needed anything from us. I think she tried to yesterday."

Harry and Ron stared at Alice, awestruck.

"Katherine was able to figure out how to receive the message." Alice said nodding to Katherine.

"I sat and talked with her for a bit." Katherine started. "Then she started trying to speak almost. She didn't finish any words. But the effort was there. She then started tracing her finger around. I followed her finger with a quill. What she wrote didn't make any sense to me."

When Katherine had finished Alice continued. "Since then we have tried talking with her, to get more from her. Sometimes she will write something out. Sometimes she won't. But each time the message seems the same."

Alice then laid out several pieces of parchment across her desk. She then pointed her finger at one. "This is the first one here. These are the rest in progression." She guided her hand across the rest. "As you can see they are generally the same."

Harry and Ron both stared at the bits of parchment in disbelief. This had been the closest that they have ever been to helping Hermione, but yet they were still far away.

"Katherine and I looked these over trying to make sense of them. We came to the agreement that this is a G she said pointing to the first symbol on one of the parchments and this one is an S. The last part is word. G S word."

"We were hoping you could tell us what it might mean." Katherine said.

Harry and Ron both stared at it for the longest time.

"I don't know." Harry finally said. "Is she doing anything else?"

"She's been eating on her own regularly again." Alice answered. "Why don't you go in and visit her for a bit. Let her know you got the message."

Harry and Ron went in and talked with Hermione for awhile. They let her know that they had gotten the message and they would figure out what it had meant.

As evening came Ron went back to his house.

In his cupboard was his emergency bottle of Firewhiskey. It was about half empty. He poured himself a shot and downed it in one gulp.

He thought it might be best to forget about what happened today for a while. What had been bothering him had been Harry and Ginny and their relationship starting anew. What was bothering though was that it wasn't bothering him.

Harry and Ginny belonged with each other. They both had pined for each other while Harry, Hermione, and he were out searching for the Horcruxes. Ron didn't mind them being together, he had suggested it to them on more than one occasion. Harry was the only one that he trusted with her.

Hermione and he were together though. They had admitted to each other that they did love each other. When he confided in his mother in a letter about it she had said he had only stated what everyone already knew.

Now Hermione was in St. Mungo's and he was alone. Harry and Ginny had the nerve to start their relationship again while he was in misery.

Ron knew he shouldn't think like that. He fought a dark lord and his followers so no one would have to live without happiness.

That was enough of that! Ron went to the table he had and summoned a quill and some ink. On a piece of parchment he wrote G and S then word.

Ron stared at it for probably an hour. He ran through every name he remembered from Hogwarts. Then he went through all the people in the Order of the Phoenix. He even thought about his own extended family.

Nothing came to him.

He then wrote G S word again. This time for some reason he ran them together. GSword.

Ron poured himself another shot.

Ron looked at this. He then wrote it again. G Sword. It wasn't G S word it was G Sword.

He then downed the shot.

G for Gryffindor. Hermione wanted Gryffindor's sword!

Ron nearly spit out shot he just tried to down.

For some reason or another Hermione needed Gryffindor's sword.

He could not fathom a reason why. Alice said that if there was anything she needed she would give them a message.

Ron wondered about where the sword would be. No doubt it would be in Headmistress McGonagal's office. He then wondered what it would take to talk her out of it. Alice could probably help in that capacity. The thing was convincing Harry that he was right.

He immediately went to the fireplace and used the floo network to contact Harry.

"You there Harry." He called out.

Harry came out of bed and to his fireplace "Yeah what is it?" Harry asked.

"I figured out Hermione's message."

Harry couldn't speak for a moment. "Come out of the fire then and tell me."

Ron's head disappeared for a moment. Harry saw a spinning object then Ron jump out of his fireplace. He wobbled a bit before righting himself.

"Had a bit to drink?" Harry asked.

Ron ignored the comment. He grabbed the quill and parchment from Harry's desk. "We both thought that they were initials at first, right. Well their not, not really anyway." Ron wrote out the GSword. He then divided out the G so Harry could see what he found.

"You know who has the sword?" Ron asked.

"I think Professor McGonagal keeps it in her office." Harry said looking over the divided G from the S word.

"But if you and Alice talked with her she would give it to us." Ron argued.

"Ron the last time Hermione had gotten a hold of something sharp she cut herself. Don't you remember her covered with the bandages?" Harry tried to say reasonably. He could not think of a reason why Hermione would want Gryffindor's sword.

"I remember." Ron answered curtly. "I also remember that Alice and Katherine ever figured out what it was that she used to cut herself with. I think something else might have caused it."

"What are you saying Ron?" Harry asked.

"That I think she is fighting something else. Something we don't know about."

"Do you think Alice isn't telling us something?" Harry asked.

"I trust Alice, she brought Hermione farther than any one of us could have. She has also protected her. But I don't think she knows this."

"Ron I will talk with Alice tomorrow." Harry said. "Why don't you get some sleep wear off the booze."

Harry put Ron back into the flames. He thought it was better for him to floo in his state.

Harry tried to go back to sleep, but he couldn't. He wrote a letter to Professor McGonagal asking to meet him at the Hogwarts around ten. He figured that would give them both plenty of time.

In the morning Harry Disapperated and Apparated to Hogsmeade. He then walked up to Hogwarts. The school still had extensive security about it and even Harry Potter had to walk up the same way others had to.

Harry was met at the gate by Professor McGonagal. "I received your owl." She said. "It sounded as though you needed a bit of help."

They took a path around the way to go to the office. Professor McGonagal and Harry had agreed they did not want to run into any students.

Once inside the office Harry sat down and explained what Alice had told them about the message and what Ron thought the message was.

"He does believe that Hermione wants Gryffindor's sword then." Professor McGonagal said calmly.

"Yes I do." Harry answered. "I can see where he thought the message might mean that. Unfortunately I can't make it mean anything else."

"You don't want me to give it to him." Professor McGonagal said rather than asked.

"No, she's already hurt herself." Harry said.

"Yes Alice told me about that."

Professor McGonagal got up and went over to a cabinet on the far wall. She swung open the door.

"It appears that Mr. Weasley as already beat us to it." She stepped aside so Harry could see the empty cabinet.