This one is to all of you anonymous reviewers, who I can never reply too, and those of you who I can't PM and so I can't reply to your great reviews! I adore all of your reviews; they make this writing all worthwhile! :D

'Oh, no, no, I can't go in,' Ron's face turned a little more pale.

'Yes, of course you can Master Ron; I'll just open the doors for you. Everyone is waiting for you, Master Ron!'

'Bloody hell, do-,' Ron's protest against it was cut shut as Sparky's magic opened the great doors.

Ron stared in awe at the crowd of black below him.

A great staircase opened up and led down onto a huge magnificent dance floor, which was now spilling over with black capes. Elves milled around happily, carrying plates of food and alcoholic beverages. Grand chandeliers hung from the high arched ceiling, their beauty and sparkle made all of the other delicate chandeliers look cheap and flimsy. Once again Ron's jaw dropped down in awe.

Suddenly he saw one black figure push through the crowds, running up the stairs towards him. That female perfume he had first smelt returned to his lungs.

'Hello, hello?' whispered Hermione to a dim room.

Suddenly lights blared on and a throng of elves appeared.

'What can we make for Mistress?'

'I am not your mistress,' she said with disgust. 'You know Ron don't you?' Suddenly the elves' smile widened, they looked like mini Cheshire Cats, but not as fluffy, cute or cat like.

'Of course we know Ron,' they did not give him the 'Master' title, but it was not because they did not respect him; he was their favourite student and they completed his orders without any questions. When he asked them to call him Ron, they called him Ron with a smile.

'Do you know where he is?' She asked; this was her plan. The elves were sure to know if Ron had been taken to a house where his Mother was, there was sure to be elves and every elf knew every other elf worth knowing about. They would know if Ron was well.

They could get a message to him.

The elf would had been answering her questions so far, shooed the others away and brought Hermione a chair. Hermione sat.

This elf was a female, she was plump and slightly shorter than normal but she carried her head high and was obviously of high-elfish birth. Her family had probably been serving great wizards for hundreds or maybe thousands of years. Her nose was longer and her kind eyes a bright blue, they shone with majestic pride. She had a warm, maternal air.

'May I ask your name, Miss?' Accepting Hermione's unspoken order to not call her mistress; Miss would do.

'Hermione, and yours?'

'Aine,' she said with a smile, Hermione suddenly noticed a small Irish accent, which had been squashed over the years by her English living and speaking. 'What do you wish of Ron?'

'I want to know where he is,' she said once again. Aine looked at her, staring deep into Hermione's doe brown eyes.

'Do you have a black dress, Miss?' Hermione gave the elf a funny look.

'No,' she answered unsurely.

'Could Miss get one?'

'Err, yes I think I could find one,' the word she really meant was 'steal' but that sounded bad and stealing was not a Hermione action, finding was. 'Can you tell me where he is?' She didn't have time for irrelevant questions.

'No,' she said shortly. 'But Aine can show you,' she said with a smirk. Hermione gasped. 'Aine has been not allowed to say where Ron is but no one forbade her to show any one. Meet Aine back in the Kitchens when you have got the dress on. Aine can do your hair and makeup, Aine was once an appearance elf.' Hermione nodded at her instructions, finding it weird to be ordered around by an elf, but she wasted no time in bolting out of the kitchens. 'Hurry Miss,' added Aine as Hermione left.

'Have any of you seen Hermione?' Asked Harry as he looked around the common room. Neville, who sat beside him in Ron's chair, shook his head, but Harry hadn't expected him to know anyway. His question had been more address to Ginny, who sat in Hermione's usual chair.

'Yes actually, I saw her a minute ago, she looked all flustered,' said Ginny thoughtfully as her mind wonder back to a few minutes previously. 'But she looked happy about something.'

'Did you speak to her?' Asked Harry curiously, Hermione was never flustered; she was always cool and calm and composed.

'Well, I tried but I don't think she heard me.'

'Oh,' said Harry shortly, not knowing what was wrong with Hermione, maybe Ron's disappearance was getting to her. He had always thought that there was something going on between them two. Maybe he was right, and it wouldn't be for the first time.

'I know where she is.'

'Oh! Hello Luna,' Harry had just looked down when the happy voice caused his head to shoot up. 'Where is she?'

'The cat's mother? I don't know where She is but I know where Hermione is,' said Luna in all seriousness.

'Where, Luna?'

'She has gone to find her dark cloaked Lord,' and with that Luna skipped back out of Gryffindor.

'What?' Said Harry and Ginny in Luna's wake, they were both confused by her random appearance and her seemingly irrelevant comment.

'Oh! How's she getting there?' Asked Neville quietly but Harry and Ginny heard him.

'You know what she meant?' Harry's evening had just gone from confusing to extremely confusing.

'Of course,' said Neville with a look of complete bewilderment on his face; who could not understand that? 'Lord? Lord? Dark cloaked? A dark cloaked Lord? Merlin! Who wears a dark cloak?'

'Snape.'

'I thought I was the stupid one,' muttered Neville to himself. 'No, Harry, who?'

'Death eaters?'

'Thank you Ginny!'

'She's gone to find Draco Malfoy.'

'I thought we'd gone over this, Harry, with Hermione! Draco Malfoy is not a death eater. You've got some kind of obsession with that git,' Ginny shook her head and looked back at the, now, in control and smart Neville.

'Now think, who do we know who has recently been found to have a connection with death eaters?'

'Snape!'

'No Harry,' said Neville flatly. 'Ginny?'

'No, I had someone but I don't think so. It wouldn't make sense. She couldn't get to him.'

'Yeah, that's who Luna means.'

'It must be but... how?'

'I know, maybe she's figured something out.'

'But she'd at least come to Harry or even me, if she'd got something of importance. And how would Luna know?'

'Luna loads everything that goes on around here. Maybe she can't tell us?'

Harry's head just turned left and right and left and right and left and right, in time with the constant conversation; he was lost.

'Who?'

'It's obvious Harry,' said Ginny with a smile.

'Well, it obviously not, because I don't know!'

'Just tell him Ginny before I beat him with his Herbology book!'

'A dark cloaked Lord! Dark cloaks equals death eaters or something to do with them. Then a Lord, so it's a Lord associated with dark cloaks or death eaters...'

'Why's she going to look for Voldermort?' A shiver went around all eavesdropping.

'Neville said recently,' said Ginny but Harry still looked as confused as ever.

'Ron! She's gone looking for Ron!' By now, Neville had left before he did something he might have later regretted, might have later regretted.

'But how's she going to get there? And why does Luna know? And how did she know where he'd be? And why didn't she tell me?' But Harry's questions received no answers.

Ginny had walked away; she was seconds away from hitting Harry with a bat-bogey hex.

'Where did everyone go?'

'Hello Miss.'

'Hi Aine, does it look okay?'

'Yes Miss, lovely. Please sit down.' Hermione took the seat that Aine offered her and sat in silence as Aine did her thing. The motherly elf hummed to herself as she completed her work; she'd loved her previous job and was now wondering why she'd ever decided to become a Kitchen elf. Maybe it was because of the children. Yes, it was. She loved children and here, she met some of the nicest and politest there was.

'Does Miss like?' Asked Aine as she looked on her latest piece of work; she nodded as she silently admired it. In her mind, the hair and makeup couldn't have been applied better.

'Merlin! Aine it's beautiful!' Hermione tilted and turned her head to get a better look in the mirror that had just appeared in front of her.

'It will suit Miss then.' Hermione blushed and shook her head in disagreement; she wasn't like other girls. She was nothing like the other feminine girls. Hermione had her books, common sense and brains when other girls had clothes, makeup and beauty.

'Thank you Aine, will you take me now?'

'Yes Aine will take Miss in a minute. But Miss, beware! You must act like a Pure-blood. Does Miss understand what Aine means? No. Well, Pure-bloods take a lot of care in the way others see them and their appearance. They don't walk, Miss, they glide gracefully, effortlessly. Muggle-borns and Half-bloods just walk. You must glide Miss. Otherwise they shall know and they will be very angry if they found Miss amongst them. Miss must hold her head high and look down on others. Does Miss understand what Aine means now? Yes – is Miss sure? Good, Aine does not want Miss to end up raped, tortured and murdered. Aine will take you now.'

On hearing Aine's last sentence, Hermione didn't know if she wanted to go. She would have to act like a Pure-blood and she didn't know if she could. Surely they would know that she wasn't one of Them.
But she had to go.
She had to find Ron.
She had to make sure he was well.

Her heart would not rest until she found the truth.

Her heart would not rest until she found Ron.

'OMG! Pav, have you seen my dress?'

'What dress Hunnie?'

'The black one? You know the long one? It was here!'

'Oh yeah, I saw it earlier Lav!'

'When?'

'It's not yours though.'

'Yes it is.'

'No it's not.'

'Yes it is! Why shouldn't it be?'

'Because I saw Hermione carrying it and when I asked her if it was hers, she was like "yeah, my sister sent it for me" and I was like "oh, I never knew you had a sister" and she was "yeah!" and then I was like, well actually, I was like nothing, 'cause she'd walked away. But she said it was hers.'

'Oh! Well, Hermione Granger wouldn't steal or borrow without asking. I'm probably just having a blonde moment.'

'Yeah, Hun, just a blonde moment.'

'Pav?'

'Yeah Lav?'

'Would Hermione look better in it than me? Does Hermione even know how to put on a dress?'

'Probs not! And no one could look better than you in it, Lav. You're like totally hot, everyone thinks so.'

'Thanks babe!'