A/n Once again, this is an extremely AU story so don't expect the events of OotP and expect some OOCness.

Chapter Twenty One

The OWL examinations took place the following week but with Headmistress Umbridge watching everyone it made it almost impossible for Hermione to concentrate on the test. Fred and George had made it clear they were going to try to do something to liven up the test however. Hermione wasn't entirely sure as to what the twins were up to and, frankly, she was a bit afraid to find out.

She also found herself thinking about the horcruxes she and her friends overheard the Order talking about. Harry had revealed to her that Snape had gone to the dark lord's side and he had seen the meeting, discovering that there were five remaining horcruxes, four of which were items that belonged to the founders of Hogwarts; Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin.

She wondered what those objects were but she tried to push the thoughts to the back of her mind and concentrate on her test. The steady scratch of quill on parchment was the only thing that could be heard in the Great Hall and Hermione could tell many of the students were on the verge of falling asleep; Draco and Ron were two of those students.

The silence was suddenly broken by the sound of a firecracker going off at the back of the classroom. Everyone turned their heads as one as another fire cracker was tossed into the room and exploded into the air. A moment later, owls flew rapidly through the Great Hall, Hedwig among them, chirping and hooting happily. Hermione had a feeling Hedwig was the one that convinced the other owls to do this and she smiled slightly.

"Woohoo!" Fred and George shouted as they flew into the Great Hall on their broomsticks, tossing firecrackers every which way as they flew onward, causing Umbridge and Filch to immediately leap to their feet.

"Stop that this instant," Umbridge shouted.

Fred and George laughed before a few of the magical firecracker combined to form a dragon that chased after Umbridge, causing her to flee the Great Hall. Hermione, along with the other students ran out of the hall in time to see the dragon destroy all of Umbridge's rules before disappearing.

Cheering erupted from the students and Harry and his friends hurried out onto the patio balcony to way as Fred and George continued to toss firecracker after firecracker into the air. He could see that the teachers were also watching everything but were doing nothing about it.

In fact, Flitwick looked satisfied while McGonagall just looked resigned and Pomona smiled happily. Even Snape, standing in the shadows of the balcony, was having a lot of trouble keeping a smile from gracing his facial features. Harry laughed as the Weasley twins tossed a bunch of magical firecrackers in the air that created a glowing orangish red W in the air.

That was when Harry started to feel lightheaded and he felt a dark push on his mind, he recognized it instantly. Quickly putting up his barriers, Harry focused on keeping his barriers as strong as he possibly could. It ended up working, pushing the dark lord away, but a vision, one accompanied by a much gentler push, ended up sneaking past his barriers, causing him to fall onto the ground in surprise.

He was walking down a long dark corridor; there was nothing in front of him and nothing behind him. No windows or doors lined the corridors and it was eerily silent as if something had come in and drained all the noise away. The corridor widened out until it revealed a large chamber room, one filled with many artifacts used in medieval times such as armor, swords, etcetera.

The darkness was penetrated by thin rays of sunlight that seeped through the window when the curtains were blown back by a seemingly imaginary breeze. A fireplace alit in the corner, flames glowing brightly and smoke coiling upward into the chimney above it could be seen.

There was an almost awe inspiring sensation that surged through the room, providing Harry with a sense of wonder and recognition as if he felt he should know this place. It was darker than ever before but gradually more sunlight began to filter through the curtains at the other end of the room.

The darkness slowly faded as a wand lit up, lighting the entire room and Harry looked around until he realized that the wand was his. He frowned and found himself wondering as to what was happening and why he was here. He knew he wasn't in Voldemort's mind because the touch that had drawn him into this vision had been too gentle to ever belong to the dark lord. Still wondering as why this was happening, and through who's eyes he was seeing, Harry started to walk around the room.

He spotted a mirror at the other end of the room and he walked toward it before peering into the class, hoping it wasn't like the Mirror of Erised. It wasn't and it turned out to be an ordinary mirror, showing that Harry was seeing through his own eyes. This startled Harrys so much that he couldn't help but back up and gaze around, more confused than ever.

If I am seeing myself then is this my own vision? Am I so different that now I can see the future? He wondered silently.

He walked around some more, using his wand to light the area until he spotted something on the table. It was small and with a small ruby situated in the center of it. The ring was lying beside a piece of parchment although there were no words written on the parchment.

Harry stretched out a hand before touching the ring and he immediately felt a sense of cold darkness coming off of the ring. He didn't know why he felt that but he had a feeling he understood as to what the ring was trying to tell him. He recognized the cold darkness that he seemed to feel in his vision, he only ever felt it when he was in the presence of the dark lord Voldemort.

The ruby ring was one of Voldemort's five remaining horcruxes.

Swallowing, Harry quickly hurried to the window before gazing out of it, trying to find anything that'll help him to identify this place. All he could see was extensive woods lying in front of him although there was the sound of the sea lapping against rocks to the side of him. Wherever this place was, it was located on the coast.

But that could be any place! Harry thought.

When he felt the vision start to fade, he quickly hurried across the room to find something, anything, which may tell him of where this place was located. The only thing he spotted that may provide him with a clue was a section of the room where two bookcases lay side by side with each other. There were many other things in the room, which was starting to look like a combination of two rooms, all of which Harry quickly memorized for later use.

The last thing he remembered seeing was a gentle face peering at him, a woman's face with emerald eyes. "You will become a great wizard and I believe you will win this war, my son," the woman whispered and then she was gone and the rest of the vision shattered.

The instant she saw Harry collapse, Hermione hurried to his side before kneeling down beside him and Ron quickly jogged over to join him. In the shadows, Hermione was surprised to see a brief gleam of concern in the Snape's obsidian gaze but he stayed still. "What happened?" Hermione asked quietly.

"I know where one of the horcruxes is and what it is," Harry whispered quietly.

"You do?" Ron gasped.

Draco walked over to join them at that moment and had overheard Harry's statement. "What are horcruxes?" he asked also keeping his voice quiet. Hermione had a feeling Draco had come over to see if his friend was all right.

Harry swallowed. "I'll tell you later," he whispered.

"Where is it?" Ron asked.

"That's the whole thing. I only saw the room where it's located but nothing after that, nothing to determine what that place is. I do know, though, that it's on the edge of a forest and on the coast."

"Well, that narrows it down," Hermione murmured. "We'll look into it when we return to our common room."

Harry nodded.

"It wasn't the dark lord then, was it?" Draco asked.

Harry shook his head. "That's another thing that's really odd. Just as the vision disappeared, I, sort of, saw my mother," he said.

Ron's eyes went wide. "Your mum?" he echoed. "Why?"

"I don't know."

"We'll talk about this later," Hermione said when she noticed some of the other teachers were beginning to notice something was wrong with Harry. She, Ron and Draco helped Harry to his feet as McGonagall walked over to join them while Umbridge and Filch continued trying to get Fred and George down from the sky.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"Yeah, just a fainting spell," Harry lied smoothly.

Hermione resisted the urge to sigh, she had a feeling Snape was beginning to rub off on his ward. "We should take him back to the common room just in case it gets worse," she said.

"Good idea. Umbridge is having her hands full trying to get Fred and George down after all," McGonagall said there was amusement in her voice.

Hermione nodded before she, Ron and Draco guided Harry off of the balcony and toward the Gryffindor Tower. She wasn't all too surprised when Snape moved to intercept them, his face as impassive as ever. "And where do you four think you're going?" he asked silkily.

"Harry's having dizzy spells so we're taking him back to Gryffindor Tower," Draco said. He was the only one among the four that didn't know that Snape was Harry's guardian.

Snape sneered. "Well, get to it then," he said curtly. "We wouldn't want our precious golden boy to faint again now would we?" With that, he swept away although he did cast a brief concerned glance at Harry as he walked, one that went unnoticed by Draco but noticed by everyone else.

"Sometimes I wonder why Snape doesn't like you," Draco mused.

"It's a complicated story," Harry replied. "Come on, I think we should find out as much information as we possibly can."

"But what are we going to do with that information? Umbridge is in control of Hogwarts and the only one who can use that information is Dumbledore and who knows where he is," Hermione protested.

"What if we find the horcrux ourselves? If we do then we can prove to the Ministry that the dark lord is back by presenting the horcrux to them," Harry said.

"Now you're talking crazy. The Ministry wouldn't believe the dark lord is back if he was standing right in front of them," Draco said with a snort.

"But with Dumbledore who knows where, we can use this information and find the horcrux. If we can destroy it then the dark lord will not be as powerful if what we read about them is true," Harry said.

"Harry's right," Ron said after a moment's thought.

"We'll be breaking every rule in the book," Hermione protested. "It'll get us expelled from Hogwarts for sure, especially with Umbridge in charge."

"Not to mention if the dark lord found out, considering I think these horocuxes have something to do with him, then he'll likely be going after them himself," Draco added.

"But we have to do something," Harry protested.

"We should tell a teacher at the least," Draco said.

"No, they won't listen to me, I don't trust them and I won't go to them for help," Harry said firmly although there was a slight crawl of fear in his voice.

Hermione had a feeling those feelings of distrust were implanted in Harry because of his deplorable upbringing due to the Dursleys.

"Harry, this isn't our fight," she said quietly, trying one last time to get through to him.

Harry glowered at her. "It is our fight, or at least it's my fight. The dark lord tried to kill me as a baby and he will try again and if I can weaken him then it'll be that much easier for Dumbledore to finish him off. If you don't want to help me, I understand, but I'm doing this. I won't allow anyone else to die because of me." With that, he shrugged off his friends and jogged quickly toward Gryffindor Tower, not once glancing back.

"He's going to get himself killed," Ron exclaimed.

"He doesn't trust adults enough to go to them for help," Hermione surmised. "I suppose that's because of his upbringing."

Draco raised an eyebrow at that.

"Harry will tell you when he feels ready to do so," Hermione said. "The point is, he is going into this by himself because he doesn't trust adults, even Snape, enough to go to them for help."

"I don't want him to get killed. I'm actually starting to like him," Draco said. "I'm going to go help him."

"So am I. He's my best mate after all," Ron said.

Hermione smiled faintly. "I'm with you too," she said.

"With you where?" Luna's voice sounded and Hermione glanced over her shoulder as Luna, Ginny, and Neville walked over to join them.

"Er…" Ron began.

"Harry's on the verge of going on a suicide mission and we're going with him to help him make it out of that mission alive," Draco said.

"Why don't you just go to an adult?" Neville protested.

"Do you honestly think anyone will believe us?"

"True."

"Well, I for one am going with you," Ginny said before she glared at Ron when her brother opened his mouth to protest. "I'm going and you can't stop me!"

"Fine," Ron growled. "But be careful, I don't want to lose you."

"I know, bro, I know."

"I'll go too," Luna said dreamily.

"So will I," Neville said and Hermione could tell he was trying to muster as much bravery as he possibly could for this upcoming mission.

"Well, let's go find Harry and tell him that we have his back," Hermione said.

The others nodded before they jogged after Hermione as she led the way to the library, where Hermione was sure Harry had gone to find more information on the place. As they ran, Hermione found herself wondering when she let someone like Ron or Harry rub off on her. She knew the smart thing to do would be to go to a teacher and tell them but she felt a sense of loyalty for her friend, one that she didn't want to betray. She also felt a sense of adventure at the prospect of finding and destroying a horcrux, thereby weakening Voldemort. If they weakened Voldemort by destroying his horcruxes then there will be a good chance that the Order of the Phoenix will be able to win the war that was brewing on the horizon.

Even though it was stupid, dangerous, reckless, and possibly life-threatening, Hermione found herself actually looking forward to the quest.

Draco found himself half looking forward to the quest and half thinking that it was the most stupid, reckless and dangerous thing he has ever done, which just made it all the more exhilarating. He followed Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville as they led the way into the library, where Hermione guessed Harry would have gone to find information on the place he saw.

Sure enough, they found Harry looking through one of the books at the back of the room and he glanced up as they approached. "What do you want?" he asked curiously.

Hermione sat down beside Harry. "We decided that we're not letting you go on this mission alone," she said.

Harry's eyes went wide. "You don't have…" he began.

"Don't you dare say we don't have to, Potter," Draco snapped. "We want to and that's all there is to it. We'll follow you if we have to but we're not letting you do this alone." Ah great, when did I become a Hufflepuff? He complained silently.

Harry's eyes gleamed. "Thanks guys but I don't want to put your life into danger," he said.

"As Draco said, we'll follow you if we have to," Ron said.

"You called Draco by his first name," Harry noted.

"Er…Well, since we are allies, we may as well know each other's names," Ron said.

Draco smirked. "Yeah, what Ron said," he said.

Harry sighed. "All right," he said. "Since I won't be able to get rid of you anyway, I've found some places that may be the location but I'm not sure, they don't have good enough pictures for me to match it with my vision."

"What did you see in your vision again?" Hermione asked.

Harry's brow furrowed in thought. "I didn't see the sea, although I smelled it and heard it hitting rocks, which told me that the place was on a cliff overlooking the sea since the sound of the sea was close. There was also the edge of the forest directly in front of me."

"What of the ground beneath you? How far were you above the ground?"

Harry narrowed his eyes in thought. "Grass," he said finally. "There was also a stone path that led into the forest, one like the one that leads to Hagrid's hut. I think I was about five stories above the ground."

"And the windows? What did they look like?"

"They sort of looked the windows here at Hogwarts although smaller."

"It sounds like we're looking for a manor," Hermione said. "Do you remember anything else?"

"There was a mirror in the room I was in and bookcases and some medieval artifacts," Harry said. "And the ruby ring was on the table next to a piece of parchment with no writing on it. I also think there was a bed but it was a bit dark although I did see the outline of one."

Draco narrowed his eyes. "A bed chamber then," he said. "And from the sounds of it, a female bed chamber since I don't know any males who have a mirror in their room."

"That narrows it down a bit," Hermione said. "It's located in a woman's bedroom in a manor on the coast and on the edge of the forest." She pulled out one of the books on the table before flipping through it. "Well, don't just stand there, you guys, we're going to need more hands if we're to find this manor. There must be some mention of a manor that matches the description," she added crisply, getting right down to business.

Draco and the others immediately went to work but after an hour of searching, they came up empty handed.

"Ugh, what else could we find that'll narrow down everything?" Ron complained push a book away disgustedly.

Hermione looked thoughtfully. "We've been looking for named Manors," she said. "Why don't we try looking for unnamed or abandoned manors? Manors that haven't been used in such a long time that witches and wizards have forgotten about them."

"Good idea," Ginny said.

It ended up being Luna who found a picture of an abandoned manor located on the coast of Northeastern Ireland. The picture matched Harry's description of the place down to every detail, including the winding stone path leading into the forest. The picture was of a side view of the manor, taking in the manor, the backyard, the sea and the forest, which allowed Harry to easily point out each thing he saw in his vision.

"Ireland? That's a long ways from here," Ron said. "Is it possible to floo there?"

"It says here that this manor is a part of the British wizardrying district," Hermione said. "It was once known as Seaside Manor until it fell into disrepair and everyone abandoned and forgot about it. If it was once a wizard's manor then there is now doubt in my mind that there's a floo there."

"And if we can't floo there?" Draco asked worriedly.

"Then we fly of course," Luna said dreamily.

While Neville kept guard on the outside of Professor Umbridge's office, the only place with a working floo besides Professor Snape's quarters, which Harry didn't want to use for fear of getting caught by Snape, the six other companions walked into the office. Ron narrowed his eyes as he followed his friends, none of them noticing the cat that had disappeared in a picture on Umbridge's wall.

When they reached the floo, Ron heard Draco mutter, "Where's the floo powder?"

"It should be here somewhere," Harry replied.

At that moment, the lights came on and a sweet voice said, "And what are you doing in my office after curfew hours?"

Sitting up so sharply that he hit his head on the desk with a thud, Ron stared in shock as Umbridge walked into the office with Crabbe, Goyle and Zabini just behind her, Zabini pushed Neville into the room. "Your little friend here tried to keep me from coming up here," Umbridge said sweetly before her extra credit club members instantly swarmed forward to push the companions against the wall, taking their wands, while Crabbe grabbed Harry's arm and tugged him forward.

Harry was pushed into a chair while Umbridge placed a quick floo call to Professor Snape before she pointed her wand at Harry. "Why are you in here? You're going to find Dumbledore, aren't you?" she demanded.

"No, I'm not," Harry protested honestly. Ron knew he wasn't lying because he doubted that Dumbledore was in Northeastern Ireland somewhere.

"You're lying," Umbridge retorted.

At that moment, Snape appeared and Ron could tell he was disappointed to see Harry there although his face barely registered the feeling in his eyes. "You wished to see me, Professor Umbridge?" Snape said smoothly.

"Yes, I need a dose of veritaserum," Umbridge replied.

"I am afraid you used the last of it on Miss. Chang," Snape replied.

Umbridge scowled.

Snape left but Ron was surprised to see him standing in the shadows beside the door as if he expected trouble with Umbridge. His concerns were correct for Umbridge smirked at Harry. "I have ways of getting the answers I need. I'm sure the Cruciatus curse will loosen your tongue," she said.

"That's illegal," Hermione protested.

"What Fudge doesn't know won't hurt him," Umbridge said sweetly lowering the picture of the Minister before pointing her wand at Harry.

"Stupefy!"

The sudden spell caught Umbridge off guard and Umbridge was sent flying to the ground. Snape, glowering angrily at Umbridge with a protective gleam in his eyes, walked into the room, his wand pointed at Umbridge.

"What is the meaning of this?" Umbridge demanded.

"You were about to use an Unforgiveable on a mere boy," Snape growled. "Even if it is Potter, I cannot and will not let you do such an act." He glanced at Harry for a long moment before adding, "Why, might I ask, are they here?"

"They were trying to use my floo to go to Dumbledore."

"Is this true, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape asked.

Ron noticed he immediately went to a member of his own house as if expecting Malfoy to tell him the truth. However, since Draco swore on his magic to not betray Harry or his friends, he could not tell Snape the truth, even if Snape would, sort of, understand. Ron also noticed that Draco was trying his hardest to come up with a plausible excuse that'll please Snape.

"Since it's the weekend, we were just going to visit Harry's godfather," Hermione said quickly to save Draco from having to come up with his own lie.

"Is that so?"

"Yes, Sirius invited me over for dinner," she lied easily surprising Ron.

Snape nodded slowly. "I find no fault in that," he said although his eyes were coolly calculating. "Although, I will have to take this up with Mr. Black before I may let you go."

"They're lying," Umbridge screeched starting to push herself to her feet but Snape's wand cast another stunning charm that sent her right back down.

"You may go back to your common room and I will inform you when I have spoken with Mr. Black," Snape said.

Ron, as relieved as everyone else was, nodded before the seven companions quickly left the room. Ron didn't want to know what Snape was planning on doing to Umbridge, the protective gleam in Snape's eyes suggested something even Ron couldn't fathom.

"Now what?" Ron asked quietly as they walked down the outdoor walkway.

Luna smiled. "We fly," she said.

"But our brooms were taking away from us."

"Who said anything about brooms?"

"And Sirius has been teaching me about my animagus ability when I wasn't training with Snape or in class or conducting the DA meeting, during the weekends mostly," Harry said. This was true, Ron remembered seeing Harry transform into a dove at the edge of the Forbidden Forest with Sirius at his side one weekend a few weeks before winter holidays, well before Umbridge became High Inquisitor.

"So I can follow you part of the way just in case there aren't enough, er, whatever it is Luna is thinking of."

"There actually aren't," Luna admitted. "There would have been had we not decided to take Draco with us but since you can transform into a dove, it won't be that much of a problem."

"You will be able to transform back, won't you?" Ron asked while Draco was wide eyed with shock.

"That was something Sirius and I focused on primarily," Harry replied. "So I'll be fine. I'll have to land on one of your shoulders though. Broken wing or not, I was still exhausted by the time we reached outskirts of the Forbidden Forest during the summer."

Hermione, seeing Draco's confused look, sighed before glancing at Harry. "Do you mind if I tell Draco everything about you and the horcruxes?" she asked.

"Go ahead."

Ron glanced over his shoulder. "We'd better get going before Snape catches up with us and finds out where we are actually heading," he said.

"Good idea," Harry agreed.

A/n what do you think?

Blaze: the part with Sirius teaching Harry about his animagus ability was never a scene in an earlier chapter although it did happen. It was just too brief to bother putting in my story

Darth: and, once again, this is set in an ALTERNATE UNVERSE so of course the location of the horcruxes, and what the horcruxes are, are not as they are in canon

Blaze: I have warned you plenty of times that this was an extremely AU story so don't flame me because everything isn't going as it went in canon

Darth: yup

Blaze: so please review and I'll post chapter 22 as soon as I possibly can although I doubt it will be anytime soon