~Chapter14~

After Kreature had calmed down and popped away, Harry and a still gloomy Sirius made their way to the kitchen for dinner.

Before they made it to the main floor, Harry grabbed his godfather by the shoulder and made him turn so they could be face to face. "Sirius, I'm here for you... If you ever need to have someone listen." Harry whispered, his emerald eyes giving away to the worry he was feeling for his godfather.

Sirius looked surprised for a moment then the corners of his lips curled up just a tad bit. "I feel like I should be the one saying that to you." He responded, causing Harry to shrug.

"Look Harr-" Sirius didn't finish, suddenly he was wrapped around Harry's arms. He was giving him a firm but warming hug, just like.. 'Lily..' The passionate red headed witch came to Sirius's mind. 'He may look like James but Lily is really who he took after.' He chuckled mentally.

They stayed like that for a moment before Sirius patted Harry on the back and moved them along.

They barely made it through the kitchen door when the entire Weasley clan and Hermione shouted "Happy Birthday!"

The raven haired boy stood shock still, a smile slowly growing on his face as Sirius clapped him on the shoulder.

"Thought we forgot huh pup?" Sirius asked his godson, a wide smile on his face.

"Honestly, yes." Harry confirmed, before he thanked everyone in the room, still looking clearly surprised and getting another laugh from Sirius.

He was hugged one by one by the Weasleys, except for Ron.

Mrs. Weasley gave him a long, bone crushing, motherly hug before Hermione gave him one of her own. The familiar scent of her perfume made his way to his nostrils, making his head dizzy with want and longing til he stomped the idea out of his mind and let her go.

He noticed her slight blush as they parted and for a moment he thought she might feel the same but then Ron called her name snapping him back to reality.

He looked at Ron, already preparing himself a plate at the table. Ron, paid him no mind, so with a frown Harry tried to ignore him and took in the sight of the kitchen table. It was filled with all Harry's favorites and there was a small birthday cake in the middle. He would look and feel happier but Ron was spoiling the mood for him as he was trying to be the ever gentleman and offered to make Hermione a plate.

She did not really answer him but did make her way to make herself a plate. Harry smirked inwardly, happy to see that Hermione was also paying him no mind.

Suddenly Mrs. Weasley was behind him, "Come on dear, eat!" She insisted as he pushed him towards the table. For about an hour Harry enjoyed food and conversation with everyone. Hermione had decided to sit next to him, making Ron a bit irritated which suited Harry just fine, but he blushed slightly every time their knees touched or brushed against each other. He could tell it was affecting her too as her cheeks pinked a bit every time as well.

After all the food and cake was eaten, everyone placed their presents in front of him. Even Ron slide a Broom Cleaning Kit with a bow on top for him. 'He must of bought it before we had our argument.' Harry thought as he nodded a thanks to him which the red head reciprocated before going back to ignoring him.

Harry then started opening his other presents from the others. From the twins, he got a box full of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products much to the dismay of their mother.

"There is some great new products in there Harry." George state with a playful smirk.

"Some will be great for pranking or an excuse to miss class." Fred added with a laugh earning him a slight scoff from their mother.

Harry laughed with the others though and continued on to Ginny's and her parents' presents for him. From Ginny he got some sweets from Honeydukes and new seeker gloves. From the Weasley parents, he received a dark red hand knitted pull over hoodie with his jersey number. He thanked them both profusely.

Sirius then passed him a box of sugar quills and a mirror shard

"Um-" Harry looked at the mirror in his hands, "Thanks?" He responded which made his godfather laugh before he answered.

"That is a communication mirror." Sirius began, "I have the other part of the mirror, it will allow me to communicate with you while you are at school." He explained as he headed out the door.

"What is he talking about? it's a broken mirror." Harry asked bewildered but when he looked down at the mirror, instead of seeing his reflection, he saw Sirius's face. "Bloody hell!" He exclaimed as Sirius waved at him, letting out a roaring laugh.

Just as suddenly as he appeared, he was gone and then the door to kitchen opened, revealing a smiling Sirius.

"How did you do that?!" Harry asked, a bit giddy.

"Your father and I created the mirror, it allowed us to communicate if we needed help." Sirius explained, "I will just be a shout away."

Harry nodded in understanding and fascination, he noticed Hermione was very curious so he handed it to her.

"Thank you." He said sincerely and got a happy grin back from his godfather.

-111-

With all his presents opened and their bellies full, Molly shooed everyone off to bed as there was to be an Order Meeting. Sirius whispered to Harry and Hermione that it was mainly about the security of the prophecy which they were more than welcomed to stay for but didn't have to.

"Is Dumbledore..?" Harry inquired, but Sirius shook his head before he could finish.

"No, he is still out of the country."

Harry and Hermione nodded, letting them know they would be heading to bed instead and made their way up to Harry's room in silence.

Once inside his room, he finally remembered to ask Hermione why they had to keep quiet when outside of their rooms or kitchen.

"Sirius's mother's portrait tends to shout if she hears us." Hermione explained, her face full of annoyance "Her name is, well, was Walburga. She is a piece of work, calls me a mudblood while the calling Sirius and the Weasley's blood traitors."

Harry frowned at her, his anger rising but of course he could not do anything to a portrait. 'Except burn it.' the thought came to mind as he looked over at Hermione.

She went and sat on his bed, kicking her shoes off then continued. "But otherwise she is just screaming at the top of her painted lungs." She shrugged seeming not to care.

"I see." Harry stated, going to sit down next to her. "At least that makes more sense."

After a few more moments, he informed Hermione what Kreature had told Sirius and him earlier that evening.

"So even elf magic didn't work on the locket.." Hermione pondered, raking her fingers through her wild brunette locks.

"Seems we will have to either give it to the Goblins and or go back into the Chamber and retrieve a basilisk's fang afterall." Harry explained, "Maybe I can convince Mrs. Weasley to let us speak to Effie when we make our trip to Diagon Ally for school supplies once we get our school letters." He added, crossing his arms and closing his eyes in concentration.

"Well you don't technically need permission. You're a Lord now." Hermione reminded him. That's when she realized, Harry was basically going along with everything the Weasley mother has been forcing on them for almost a month now.

"Harry! You could have left anytime since your talk with Dumbledore. Why didn't you?" Hermione asked, well practically shouted.

Harry blushed and not daring to open his eyes, "We need to wait to see if Dumbledore comes back from his search early." He stated but in reality, he didn't want to leave without her to be stuck alone with the damn red headed fool.

Hermione shook her head in exasperation. "I doubt it, we haven't heard news for weeks... but I understand." She finished with a smile to let him know she still thought it was a good idea. "But at least you will have the chance to give the Locket to goblins when we go to Diagon Ally for our school supplies.

"That's IF we go to Diagon Ally." Harry emphasized

"If?" Hermione asked, clearly confused.

"Who knows what the Order will say. Even with Voldemort being out of commission for the time being, there still seems to be an attack every week." Harry explained a bit darkly, reminding her of what the Order Meeting were about these days. Harry and Hermione could surely join in at the meetings but what really concerned Harry were the Horcruxes and with Dumbledore not there, there was no real need to attend every single one of them. But Sirius kept them informed.

They stayed quiet for a moment til Hermione let out a little "Oh", making Harry open his eyes and look over at her in worry but then she pulled out a small gift wrapped box from her pocket.

"Happy Birthday!" She happily stated surprising Harry entirely.

"Oh! You didn't have to!" Harry responded a bit flustered as he took the gift.

"Oh stop! I got it a months ago." He looked at her even more surprised than before.

She gave him an understanding smile, "Thought I forgot didn't you?" She nudged him in the shoulder.

He frowned slightly, he should have known better. Hermione remembered everything and he thought with all this mess going on in his life that she would forget. "I'm sorry I haven't been the friend you have needed, I hope this makes up for that." Hermione suddenly apologized sincerely.

"You don't have to apologize anymore 'Mione." Harry said in barely a whisper as he still felt bad for his own assumption.

She nodded and gave him an encouraging smile. "Come on, open it."

He managed to give her a thankful smile and unwarpped the small box. Inside was a picture of them laughing and smiling in the great hall and a black and silver bracelet.

He took the bracelet out first. Looking it over he noticed that it had runes etched into it as well as a small charm dangling off it, it was a tiny stag. "Prongs!" Harry exclaimed happily.

"I hope it's not to girly." Hermione caught his attention from her thoughtful gift.

"No, it's perfect. Really!" He assured her earnestly as he put the bracelet on. He immediately noticed a slight surge in power. Looking at the bracelet now around his wrist, he looked at the runes a bit closer.

"What do the runes do?" He asked her.

"They are suppose to enhance your spell accuracy. Many Aurors use them as an extra assistance if they know their in for a long dual." Hermione explained. "They will also protect you against small jinxes and low level stunner spells.

Harry looked back at the bracelet with fascination and wonder, he then asked "Think I am going to to need the extra protection huh?" He asked her.

"We don't know what is going to happen Harry!" Her face washed with worried, pulling her knees to her chest. "With Voldemort back and the Horcrux hunt, it seems likely that we are sitting under a war cloud."

Harry nodded, his face mirroring hers. That's something that had crossed his mind several times during the last few days. "Voldemort, though clearly weakened, is still a threat." Harry stated, "With the locket being the next one to be destroyed, it will only be a matter of time til he realizes what we are doing."

Hermione nodded and bite her lower lip, deep in thought.

Letting her stew in her thoughts, he turned back to the picture of them. Watching them laugh at something that he could not even remember. He loved it when she laughed, it made everything brighter. It made everything seem like he was living a normal teenage life for just a moment.

However he noticed something odd about the picture, it didn't seem to be taken by one of his friends but by a passer by from the angle that it was taken.

"I had asked Colin to send me some photos of us when he could." Hermione explained, almost as if she knew what he was thinking, "But when I meant us, I meant you, me and Ron but he only sent me ones of you and me." she frowned a bit at that but then added, "When I asked him, he wrote back saying that the rest of the pictures he had with Ron in them seemed sad, Ron was either glaring at you or you seemed to be upset. The only ones you were smiling in where when you and I were together."

Harry blushed a bit but was not surprised. Ron was a down right git last year even after they made up. What did surprise him is that Colin Creevey was still slightly obsessed with him.

"I need to tell Colin to not take pictures of me without permission." He grumbled , "It looks like he was like a table away when he took this!"

He noticed Hermione's worried face so he quickly added, "But I love this one! I love seeing you laugh!"

He blushed profusely at his own confession and though Hermione was blushing too, it made her giggle. "Colin is basically in love with you, I don't think he will ever stop."

"Yeah, you might be right." He mumbled as he reached over to the night stand and placed the picture next to the ones of his parents.

-111-

They laid on the bed for an hour or so. Harry's eyelids with already threatening to close for the night but he was very aware of Hermione laying only a foot away from him so he did his best to stay awake. Harry could hear her breathing and his own mix in the dim lit room. 'This would be the prefect time to confess..' The thought crossed his mind out of nowhere before he shook it off.

'She doesn't love you. Just.. learn to love her from afar.' He mentally told himself as he let out a gloomy sigh.

"Harry?" Hermione caught his attention.

He hummed a response, turning on his side to look at her. Her cheeks were slightly pink and she was avoiding his eyes.

"What Ron said a couple of weeks ago, about him having a crush on me, did you know?" She asked, her voice clearly nervous though Harry could not tell why.

'Does she like Ron?' He panicked internally, before answering her simply, "Yes."

Hermione frowned, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Harry sat up and shrugged, clearly uncomfortable. "I thought it was obvious, Hermione." He pulled a bit at his hair, causing his lately cleaned up look to become a usual mess of black locks.

"Obvious? All we do is fight and get on each others nerves!" Hermione scoffed, her cheeks turning from pink to red with anger.

"We all thought you both did it to avoid your feelings..." Explained a bit angrily, "At least that's what I heard."

Hermione just shook her head, clearly frustrated.

Harry sighed and rubbed his face, knowing that she was more upset about what the others were saying. "Look, it doesn't matter what others think. If you don't want to date him, don't." Harry began while rubbing his eyes to not look at her, "If you do want to date him, then go ahead." He tried to mask the pain he felt but he did not notice that Hermione could hear it.

"Whatever you decide to do, I support you 100%." He finished, finally looking at her, hoping she would choose not to but would deal with it either way.

She looked straight at him, her cheeks no longer red with anger but her chocolate eyes turned darker with an internal conflict. "I'm not going to date him. I have no feelings for him." Hermione finally confessed.

Harry let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Well, okay then." He simply said, his shoulders feeling a bit lighter as the tension left him.

He looked over at Hermione and noticed that she still looked unsettled. So using all his courage, he sat up and took her hand in his, using his other hand to lift her chin up so her eyes could meet his. "He's a prat. You deserve better than that." He stated honestly, giving her a quick but warm hug.

As he pulled away he saw her lips slightly curve at the corners and her eyes seemed brighter. "Right." She agreed.

-111-

The next few weeks flew by like a whirlwind.

Even though every room was completely clean, Mrs. Weasley kept them cleaning odd sections of the house. During those moments, Harry was able to convince Kreature, with Sirius's permission, to remove all the previous head elf heads from the stairwell and unstick Walburga's portrait from the entrance hall.

Sirius had let Kreature take the elf heads and the portrait to the library where no one but he was allowed to go into thus creating the quiet atmosphere that the old portrait of the previous head of house black craved. Now everyone was happy to be able to talk instead of whisper around the house for the rest of the summer.

When they weren't cleaning, Harry, with Hermione's help, finished all their summer homework.

Ron had tried and begged Hermione for help on his but since her talk in Harry's room, she barely acknowledged that Ron existed. It made the red head explode with anger so it became the norm for him to just retreat to his room and leave the other teens alone during their free time which suited the others just fine. Especially Harry, he loved spending time with Hermione and the others.

But he noticed her change too, she would always find a reason to touch his arm or even brush by him while cleaning or studying. At first it was hard to control the feeling it gave him, knowing full well that if he was wearing looser jeans that she would be able to tell how much she affected him.

But after a few breathing techniques he found in some mediation books Remus gave him, he was able to keep composed and even was able to give Hermione a smirk or wink whenever he knew she was doing it intentionally making the young witch flustered.

He knew he should quit flirting with her, even though he knew she did not have feelings for Ron, he still felt like she would not be with him in more than a brotherly way. But every day that thought became distant, with every touch and every glance at each other from across the room, he slowly realized that he was indeed in love with Hermione Granger and he wanted to tell her.

He really did but 'I would put her in danger..'

The reminder of Voldemort's shadow would keep surfacing every time he would even have the guts to tell her. Whatever courage he had would disappear and he would always withdraw from the group for the night.

'I can't risk her life'.

-111-

~ 'A graveyard?' he questioned mentally, trying to get his barrings. They had grabbed the cup and it was suppose to send them back to the start of the maze but that didn't happen.

"It's a trap..." He mumbled to himself, getting up from the damp ground. Sirius's words came back to him.

- - 'Don't trust anyone! People die in this tournament!' - -

"Is this part of the challenge?" He suddenly heard Cedric say just when a surge of hellish pain shot thru his body.

"ARGH! CEDRIC! GET BACK TO THE CUP!" He shouted to the older boy, knowing full well that they weren't safe.

The pain became worse as he saw Wormtail appear from the shadows holding a bundle in his arm.

"Who is there?!" Cedric shouted in a terrified but steeled tone, Harry turned as best he could to see him aiming his wand at Wormtail.

"Kill the spare!" he heard a hissing voice come from the bundle.

Everything happened so fast, the flash of green light, Cedric's body landing like a rock to the ground, and the pain and grief that ran thru Harry's vains were something he couldn't bare. ~

He woke up screaming, sweat drenched his body and he was shivering.

It had been happening every night and always the same nightmare. Always watching Cedric die.

He was smart enough to put up silencing charms when he and Hermione were Potter Manor but he didn't see the use while here, Sirius had to take some potions that would knock him out cold to avoid him waking up in night terrors.

He wished that would help him, not evening a calming nor a sleepless potion helped.

He was breathing hard like he just ran a marathon, his throat felt dry. He looked over to his nightstand and shakily grabbed his wand. It took a couple of tries but he finally was able to perform the time spell to see it was barely 9pm.

He left his wand fall onto his lap, the shock of the nightmare subsiding but a whirlwind of pain and anguish took its place. He clutched his sweaty hair tightly and no matter how hard he tried not to, started sobbing. His tears falling on the duvet. He wished he could take it back and grabbed the cup on his own. Wished he had been selfish and an attention seeker like everyone thought he was. Maybe then, Cedric would be alive and him dead instead.

"It should have been me.. I should be the one dead!" He growled out inbetween sobs, his whole body rocking and shaking in anger, despair and pain.

-111-

Hermione was a very frustrated person at the moment. 'Every time I think we will be alone and I can tell him how I feel, he goes to bed.'

She rolled around on her own bed, clutching her pillow tightly while Ginny was reading up on the Basic Book of Spells.

Hermione groaned and bit her pillow angrily.

"If you keep doing that, there is going to be feathers every where." Ginny warned her, not even looking up from her book.

Hermione let out a frustrated sigh and tried to explain, "It's just so infuriating that I know he likes me and I have been clearly making it obvious that I like him too but-"

"But he won't confess?" Ginny finished, putting her book down and giving her friend a small smile. "Hermione Granger, it might be obvious to you as you are the brightest witch in all of Hogwarts but maybe remember, Harry is a bit dense when it comes to feelings."

Hermione let out a softer sigh, "So I need to be the one to confess." She simply stated, her cheeks turning bright pink.

"Right-o!" Ginny mock praised her.

"But what if I'm wrong and he doesn't see me that way?" Hermione whispered pathetically.

"Oh Merlin!" Ginny groaned, "He is literally in love with you!"

"I wouldn't go that far Gin." Hermione scoffed but then yelped as one of Ginny's teddy bears hit her in the face.

"For the love of Merlin, Hermione!" Ginny got up, rushed towards Hermione and pulled her up and off the bed.

"Go to his room and get it over with!" Ginny frustratingly yelled, shoving stubborn Hermione towards the door, ripping it open

"And don't come back for the rest of the night til you do!" Ginny angrily whispered as she pushed Hermione out the door and slammed it shut.

Hermione looked at the closed door in desperation. She knew Ginny would have already blocked it shut so she could not come back and it was already 9 at night so banging her way in was not a good idea.

With a sigh, she turned on her heel and made her way to Harry's room while making up an excuse to be at his door this late at night. 'or avoiding it all together and sleeping in the bathtub of one of the guest bathrooms.' The thought crossed her mindknowing full well that if she was caught sleeping in the bathroom, Mrs. Weasley would have a fit.

She then remembered one of the guest rooms on the fifth floor was empty since no Order member was currently occupying it. 'Better than having to being forced to confess and also getting caught in the bathtub.' She grumbled inwardly.

As she walked passed Harry's door, she started to hear what sounded like sobbing causing her to stop and crouched down to carefully listen.

She knew it was against his privacy but she needed to make sure he was safe. Suddenly in between his sobs she heard something that made her blood run cold.

"It should have been me.. I should be the one dead!"

AUTHOR NOTE:

Hello! I know some of you that have followed this story might be confused as to why this chapter was rewritten/changed.

I honestly felt that this story was becoming more of a fluff piece and not something I would be proud of. I don't want things to come too easy for Harry so I was reeled back and have changed how everything has gone so far. I hope y'all don't hate me for that but this means I can focus more on giving out longer chapters.

I am currently working on chapter 15 which I think will be the longest so far for this story.

Hope you like where this is going!