Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Harry Potter series. That credit goes to the brilliant mind of J.K. Rowling. Go Jo! I also do not own some of the material used. Again that belongs to Jo and Warner Brothers

Chapter 12 Choosing

Ginny had never looked so focused since I had known her. This was because she was having a vision. Harry gasped, having read Ginny's mind. It was only a couple of days before we left for the Christmas holidays.

"That can't be right," Harry said as we sat down to have lunch in the Great Hall.

"Hermione! Look out," Ginny gasped.

But it was too late. Cold hands covered my mouth, preventing me from screaming. Then suddenly, everyone in the Great Hall stopped moving. At least I thought everyone in there had stopped moving.

"Your relationship with this human needs to stop," the voice behind me said.

Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, Ron, Harry, and Ginny, as well as myself, were the only ones that I was aware of that were still able to move. I then remembered Ron could freeze time.

"That's not for you to decide, Draco," Ron said.

I stay as quiet and still as I could. Draco could easily break my neck if I made any movement.

"My father has told me to relay a message. Either turn her, or she'll be killed," Draco said, pulling my body closer to him.

"No," Ron yelled.

Of course Ron wasn't about to do that. I closed my eyes, expecting for my life to end right now.

"Have it your way," I heard Draco said.

He pushed my away and I as caught by another pair of cold hands. I opened my eyes I found I was in the arms of Ron. As Ron looked down, everyone started moving again.

"How… how is it I wasn't affected?" was for the first thing I asked.

I looked around. No one seemed to realize what had just happened.

"Draco was touching you," Harry explained because it didn't seem Ron was going to be talking any time soon.

"Snape didn't have to pretend," I said, glancing at the staff table.

"Oh, he wasn't pretending. He just didn't say anything," Ginny explained.

Ron didn't let go of me as we sat back down.

"Is he on their side?" I asked

"He has no side," Ron muttered.

I looked down and forked some eggs. What if I did change?

"Hermione!"

Ginny and Harry had screamed my name at the same time. Ron looked alarmed, making be wonder if he had a way of knowing why Harry and Ginny had yelled my name.

"You can't," Ginny said.

"There are other ways of getting past them," Harry told me.

Ron realized what they were saying to me and made a fist.

"Hermione, why…" he began, but he couldn't finish the sentence.

I really needed to lean to keep my mind closed while around Ginny and especially Harry.

"I don't plan on living my life without you. Besides, I don't want to die yet," I said.

Ron laughed, and at first I didn't know why. Then I remembered that last statement I just said.

"Did you just hear yourself? Changing you is killing you," Ron said.

I looked down, knowing that was true.

"All right, all right, but do you see what I'm trying to say?" I asked him.

He looked down, and I knew he had been thinking all this over silently in his head.

"Changing you will only happen if and only if our other attempts fail," Ron said with Ginny and Harry shaking their heads vigorously.

"What's first?" I asked.

"We leave… tonight," Ron said.

"And where exactly would we go?" I asked, looking uncertainly as Harry and Ginny.

I couldn't just leave my parents and not know if I was coming back.

"The States," Ginny said automatically. "Yes, that should do it."

"What are my parents going to say?" I asked, my eyes staying on my plate.

"They can't know," Harry told me.

I looked up at him and leveled my eyebrows.

"But…" I began, not knowing how this was going to work.

I parents would be waiting at King's Cross for me in couple of days time.

"You just can't," Harry said. "You need to put a memory charm on them until we get back.

So that's what I did. I told them after putting the charm on them that I need to go back to Hogwarts.

xxx

I was sitting down with my head down, and I was leaning little by little closer to the ground of the floor in the Weasley house. I was worrying about my parents. It didn't help matters either that I had a fear of flying. Why they had been adamant on using flying on broomsticks, I didn't know.

"Did I do the right thing?" I asked, more to myself than to Ron, who was sitting next to me.

"Yes, you did," he assured me.

Ginny walked over to me, broom in hand. She had been watching my behavior with interest. I figured Ron had thought my behavior was due to my worry for my parents.

"Hermione, what's wrong?" Ginny asked.

I sighed and sat up.

"I'm terrified of flying," I told her.

"You don't trust me?" Ron asked, hurt in his voice.

I'd be on the broom with Ron as we made our way to the States.

"Of course I trust you. It's the broom I don't trust," I said, eyeing the stick in his hand apprehensively.

"Just hold on tight and I won't let anything happen to you," Ron told me as he helped me up.

Now if that wasn't a line, I don't know what was is. When we arrived in Washington, Ginny reported that she didn't see anyone tracking us. I only hoped that it would stay that way.