Chapter 34

Immediately after returning to school following Christmas, Harry followed Uncle Vernon's advice and went to Professor McGonagall's office, to ask if he could drop Arithmancy. Surprisingly, convincing McGonagall that he should be allowed to drop a subject halfway through the year proved to be nothing compared to convincing Hermione that he should. As a result, Hermione refused to speak to him for a week due to her annoyance at what she dubbed his 'defeatist attitude'.

After a week of Hermione glaring at him and mentally assaulting him through the bond whenever he tried to speak to her, she finally agreed that it was okay that he'd dropped Arithmancy so long as he promised to use the time which would have otherwise been used for lessons to do homework. Much to Ron's amusement Harry, the boy who had faced and defeated three incarnations of Lord Voldemort, had immediately agreed to her condition for fear of facing another week spent in the company of a wrathful Hermione .

As reluctant as he was to admit it, Hermione's insistence, or rather demand, that he do his homework so far in advance had actually worked in his favour; his organization on the homework front had given him several hours additional time to practice Quidditch and duelling.

By the end of April, Harry had not only successfully mastered the Patronus Charm but had also begun work on using his Patronus as a form of communication, an alteration to the spell that Professor Dumbledore had apparently devised. Another benefit Harry attributed to his dropping of Arithmancy, and the fact that Severus had returned his Firebolt four weeks after the start of term, was the fact that with only one match remaining, Gryffindor was in the lead for the Quidditch Cup for the first time in eight years.

"Who lead the Great Goblin Nation to Britain?" Hermione asked Harry from over the top of her history revision notes.

Harry tilted his head to the side and pushed his glasses up his nose. They'd been sitting on the floor in Harry's dormitory revising for their History of Magic exam the following week for several hours now; Harry had so far only answered six of Hermione's questions correctly. "Was it... Gorbalock the Grumpy?"

Hermione opened her mouth, glanced down at her notes for a second time and Harry was surprised to see a small smile form on her face. "Yes, brilliant, Harry, I think we're finally getting somewhere. Looking at past questions, I think this is going to be a big topic on the exam so I think we should focus on the hardships which they faced on the journey."

Harry nodded, suddenly feeling rather well prepared for the exam, he was sure he knew about this topic. "I think I remember this, didn't they come across a dragon's nest?"

Hermione nodded, shuffling through her notes to find the right page. "Yes, excellent... you're not peeking at the sheets are you?" She asked, narrowing her eyes.

"No," Harry shook his head in indignation. "I think I actually know this."

"Right," Hermione put the sheets face down on the floor and looked Harry in the eyes. "so what else can you tell me?"

"All right, then," Harry said, crossing his arms defiantly and meeting Hermione's stare, he could prove to her that he knew about the Goblin Wars. "I think they also ran into a colony of Acromantula and this caused loads of trouble because, well... most Acromantula are huge compared to goblins, aren't they? But luckily, when they made camp near a Wizarding settlement, they did some metal work in exchange for gold and magical items, and one of them had gotten an invisibility cloak, which allowed him to kill a load of the spiders."

Hermione frowned at Harry and picked her notes back up. "Right." She said, still frowning, and gestured for him to continue.

"Well, then the goblins were captured by a group of centaurs who believed that they'd seen something bad in the stars about them," Harry continued watching as Hermione's frown deepened and lines formed between her eyebrows; feeling slightly uneasy, Harry tried to continue from where he'd finished. "But fortunately, they were rescued by a bear Animagus who bundled them into barrels and sent them down a river, which- what are you laughing at?" Harry stopped talking and glowered at Hermione who'd gasped and then begun giggling.

"Sorry, Harry," Hermione put a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles and smiled apologetically at him. "You haven't been reading any Tolkien recently, have you?"

"You know I have," Harry said, feeling his annoyance at Hermione increase. "you told me off just the other day for reading 'The Hobbit' instead of paying attention in history."

Hermione sighed and collected her history notes together. "Look, just this once I'm going to duplicate my notes for you, you've gotten some of the facts right- Gorbalock did lead the goblins to a herd of Centaurs but a lot of the events you think happened are taken straight from 'The Hobbit'."

Harry ran a hand through his hair, leaned back against his trunk at the end of his bed, and sighed loudly in relief. Maybe he didn't know as much about the Goblin Wars as he thought he had, but at least now he'd have some proper notes instead of a stack of half-finished games of hangman and noughts and crosses. "You're brilliant, Hermione, I really do love you." Harry sighed again and shook his head. "Merlin, I can't believe I got all that wrong, though; I was fairly certain I was right."

"You probably just copied down your notes incorrectly," Hermione said soothingly. "I imagine your answers were due to the fact you were studying from wrong notes, you'll be able to correct that with a bit of work."

Harry nodded slowly, wondering if Hermione actually realized who she was talking to, surely she knew by now that he didn't revise; she certainly would never accuse Ron of revision, so why would she assume that he had bothered picking up his nonexistent notes. "Yeah, I suppose your right." Harry lied, not meeting Hermione's eyes and hoping that she couldn't feel that he was lying through the bond.

"I think I could maybe do with a bit of fresh air." Harry stood up a stretched. "I, uh, think that if I just clear out my... mind a bit, I could probably remember more when I come back to revise later."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "If you're going to practice duelling with Percy, please take Cosmo with you, he's been pacing the room for at least half an hour now."

Harry grinned, watching Hermione as she duplicated her notes and set it down on the end of his bed. "I honestly don't know what I'd do without you, Hermione; you are probably the most brilliant person I've ever met."

Hermione nodded her head, her eyebrows raised in amusement. "Yes, well, I can hardly let you fail your exams."

Harry smiled, picked up his summer cloak and whistled. "Cosmo, come on, we're off for a walk. Don't worry about me failing, Hermione, if I get stuck in an exam I can just take a peek into your mind and get the answers that way."

Harry shot Hermione another bright grin, recast the Disillusionment Charm on Cosmo who had appeared next to him and headed out through the dormitory door. "I'll see you later."

At the bottom of the staircase to the boys' dormitory, Harry remembered that he'd promised Dean and Ron that they could come with him and have a go on his Firebolt the next time he went to practicing duelling with Percy. He turned to head back up the staircase, but was met by Hermione who had collected her notes together and had brought them, and his broomstick, with her down to the common room.

"It's a good job you remembered when you did or else you'd be going back up there to collect it yourself." Hermione said as she handed him his broomstick.

"Have I ever told you that you're brilliant?"

"Frequently." Hermione noted dryly.

"Well, you really are." Harry pulled Hermione into a quick hug and kissed her on the cheek before turning to face to common room, searching the crowd of people for Ron and Dean. Catching sight of them in a corner playing chess, Harry stood on his tiptoes and bellowed across the common room. "Oi, Ron, Dean, you coming flying?"

"Course, let me just put my chess pieces away, ever since I let Seamus use them they've been trying to escape." Ron shouted back across the common room.

"Okay, I'll wait for you at the portrait hole."

Hermione swatted Harry on the arm and frowned at him. "Inside voice, please, Harry." She admonished in a near perfect imitation of Aunt Petunia. "There's no need for you to shout."

"Yeah, yeah, mum, I'll see you later then, Mrs. Bossy Knickers." Harry picked his way across the common room, feeling Hermione mentally swat him on the back of the head in annoyance as she spread her history notes out on a nearby table.

OOOOO

Harry, Ron, and Dean found Percy sitting out by the edge of the Forbidden Forest, frowning in concentration and pointing his wand at his left hand.

"What spell 're you doing there?" Harry asked, handing his broom to Ron and removing the Disillusionment Charm from Cosmo.

"It's a basic human transfiguration spell called 'Homomutatrum', one of the six Auror disciplines is 'concealment and disguise'." Harry watched as the skin on Percy's left hand darkened and the fingers lengthened.

"Wow, Percy, that's brilliant, can you use it to morph facial features too?"

"Yes, but it can be very difficult and it takes a lot of magic to keep up the spells, if you don't have someone cast them on you. There was a Hufflepuff Metamorphmagus in Charlie's year when he was at school." Percy said with a pained expression as he looked down at his own hand. "This is rather unimpressive compared to that."

Harry, who had read about Metamorphmagi when he was researching the Animagus transformation, shrugged. "If you think about it properly, that's more impressive; Metamorphmagi are born, so really their transformation doesn't take any skill, it's like being jealous of a chameleon for being good at disguise."

Percy shrugged, transfigured his hand back to normal and stood up. "So what do you want to practice this afternoon?"

"I was thinking maybe 'duro' the Petrification Curse. I've looked into it and it seems that if you're quick enough you could actually use it to block the Killing Curse, you know, by transfiguring an object into a physical shield." Harry took off his cloak and dropped it on the floor by a nearby tree.

"I imagine you'd have to be very fast to manage to block a Killing Curse like that." Percy said as he shook the stiffness out of his arms and legs.

Harry took his wand out of the back pocket of his jeans and stretched his arms above his head. "Yeah, that's why I think that agility is important, we need to be able to duck and dodge- stupefy," Harry sent a Stunning spell at Percy who blocked it with ease. "and I think it could also be used as a more permanent form of stunning, it's reversible but doesn't wear off, protego." Harry blocked Percy's Body-Bind Curse and moved further out into the open.

"That does sound rather useful, stupefy, but I imagine it will take us a while to learn, I was thinking we could also try the Conjunctivitis Curse." Percy blocked another hex that Harry sent at him and ducked behind a tree.

Harry and Percy's practice duel continued for several more minutes until Harry knocked himself out with his own Stunning spell, which had missed Percy and hit Harry as it rebounded from a tree.

After Percy had revived Harry, they began practicing the petrification spell on inanimate objects, which according to Percy, would be much easier than petrifying people or animals.

After several hours of practice, Percy had successfully turned the leaf he was practicing on to stone, and Harry, optimistically, thought that his leaf appeared to be slightly more brittle than it had before.

"Ah, it looks as though we have missed dinner again." Percy said as he checked his watch again. "I'm patrolling at nine; I've got about an hour before I need to report to the headmaster's office."

Harry glanced over at where Dean was flying over by the Quidditch pitch. "You'd think those two would have gotten hungry ages ago, we can head down to the kitchens for a bit of dinner now if you want, that'll give you time to eat and get to Dumbledore's office."

It was a regular occurrence when he and Percy practiced defensive magic that they'd practice through meal times. They never planned to but often they got so caught up with duelling and learning new spells that several hours would pass without either boy realizing. At first, Percy had refused to visit the kitchens to catch up on lost meals, protesting vehemently that they were out of bounds; however, after spending six hours of the following day practicing Quidditch in the rain with Harry, Fred, and George, Percy's views on having a late dinner in the kitchens changed swiftly.

Harry and Percy had just agreed to call it a day with their duelling when they heard a shout from near the Quidditch pitch. "Scabbers, no... Cosmo, stay, no, bad dog!"

Harry glanced over at Percy who was watching Ron chasing Cosmo across the Quidditch pitch, with Dean flying several metres above him on Harry's broom, with a look of bemusement on his face.

Turning, Harry snatched up his cloak from where he'd left it on the floor and began running towards Ron and Cosmo with Percy thudding along loudly behind him. He looked around the empty grounds and watched, impressed, as Dean landed running, shouldered Harry's broom, and followed Ron.

"Cosmo, no!" Harry bellowed, picking up his speed as he neared Ron and Dean.

Just as Harry reached his friends, he saw Cosmo and a small brown shape he assumed to be Scabbers disappear into the Forbidden Forest. Harry and Ron exchanged a quick, worried glance before diving through the undergrowth after their pets.

Harry heard Percy shout something about 'school rules' and 'teachers' from the other side of the tangle of weeds but both boys ignored him, pushing their way through a particularly thick briar patch and into the Forbidden Forest. It was so dark beneath the canopy of leaves in the Forbidden Forest that Harry and Ron both had to light their wand tips before they could proceed.

They stood still, just inside the forest, squinting in the darkness in search of Cosmo or Scabbers. Harry had just about decided that there was no use in looking for Cosmo in the forest when Ron pointed straight ahead and said, "Look, over there."

Harry squinted in the direction Ron pointed and caught sight of Cosmo's collar reflecting their wand light. With a quick glance over his shoulder to see if Dean and Percy were following them, Harry pulled out a thorn that had stuck in his arm before once again diving into the undergrowth after his dog.

As Harry, Ron, Percy, and Dean followed Cosmo further into the Forbidden Forest, Harry wished that they were chasing the dog and rat down a proper path, he'd being stung by nettles in places he didn't want to think about and scratched by more brambles than he cared to count.

Through the small gaps between the leaves of the trees above Harry could see that they had less than an hour left of daylight. Deciding that if they were to actually find their way back to the school before the sun set Harry slowed. "I think... we're going to have to turn back." He said breathing deeply. "It'll be dark soon and I don't th-"

"Shh." Ron cut him off.

"What?" Harry hissed turning to look at Ron. "We're getting deeper into the forest and I know for a fact that Hagrid keeps Acromantula in here."

"Cosmo's slowed down." Ron whispered, pointing ahead to where Harry could still see the wand light reflected on Cosmo's collar.

Harry held his wand aloft and picked up his pace, stepping over a log and squinting ahead. He wondered what had brought Cosmo all the way out into the forest, he'd never known him to chase any kind of animal and it seemed extremely out of character for his dog to have chased a rat so deep into the Forbidden Forest.

"He's on the path." Ron whispered, forging on ahead of Harry.

Harry felt relieved at this revelation, at least now if they didn't catch their pets they would still have a way out of the forest. "Where's Scabbers?"

Ron stood on his tiptoes, now a metre away from the path as Cosmo stopped. "I c- aagh!"

Ron toppled backwards as Cosmo's entire body blurred and began to grow, changing from a dog to a human in seconds. Harry recognized the man, who moments before had been Cosmo, as Sirius Black.

OOOOO

Hermione sighed and neatly piled up her history notes, sliding them back into her folder in chronological order. She'd been revising for several hours since Harry had gone out and was pleased to say that she had successfully studied the first three topics that would be covered in the exam and only had one area left to look at.

Checking her watch, Hermione cast a Shrinking Charm on her history notes and, sliding them into the pocket of her robes, crossed the common room in search of Neville and Seamus.

She found Seamus curled up in the corner of one of the Gryffindor tower window ledges reading a book. Hermione walked across the room, perched on the edge of a table next to the window and glanced at the cover of the book Seamus was reading.

"'To Kill a Mockingbird', hmm?" She asked, sliding further onto the table and turning to face Seamus.

Seamus raised his eyes from the pages of his book to meet Hermione's. "It's a good book." He said, his tone almost defiant.

"I know it is," Hermione smiled as Seamus lowered his book, keeping his eyes fixed on Hermione. "And it's pleasant to see someone from your dormitory actually reading."

A small smiled formed on Seamus's lips as he put a scrap of parchment between the pages of his book and set it down on the window ledge next to him. "Weren't you shouting at Harry for reading just the other day?"

Hermione sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. "Ugh, don't start on that, Seamus, did you know Harry's begun confusing the events of the Goblin Wars with the events from 'The Hobbit'?" Seamus snorted and Hermione continued with a small smile. "What I should have said was that it's nice seeing one of you read for a reason that isn't getting out of homework or ignoring Professor Bins's lessons."

Seamus rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, I suppose it helps that I actually do like reading." He turned on the window ledge, so that his back now pressed against the window instead of the wall, and crossed his legs. "It helps me forget... stuff."

Hermione nodded slowly, watching as Fred, George, and Lee left the common room for dinner, if she wasn't carful with what she said to Seamus now he could either end up shouting at, or refusing to talk to, her. "It's like a form of escapism, I suppose?" Hermione said tentatively, tapping her finger nervously on the table next to her.

Seamus laughed hollowly. "Well, it's better than my other option." Seamus shrugged and held up the book he'd been reading. "It's nice to get lost in someone else's problems for a while; even if they're not real."

Hermione licked her lips and nodded slowly, wishing that Harry were there, she wasn't sure what to say to coax Seamus into sharing his problems. It was easy with Harry, they shared everything and she knew him so well that even without the bond she could predict his actions, but with Seamus all it would take was one wrong word and he'd refuse to talk to her for a month.

Hermione sucked in a deep breath and to her immense relief Seamus continued talking without prompt.

He tossed the book into the air and caught it. "I don't think that there's anything I could read that'd be worse than what I saw in... that book, I bet there's plenty of books with more horrifying stuff but what makes the diary so much worse is that I saw people I know in there."

Seamus punched the window ledge in anguish. "I can't even count the number of times that I've gone to bed and dreamt of the night Mr. and Mrs. Potter were killed, it's bloody ridiculous, I wasn't even there!" Seamus smashed his fist into the window ledge again. "And Snape, bloody, bastarding Snape!"

Hermione sucked in a lungful of air through her clenched teeth, trying to stop herself from reprimanding him, as she watched Seamus punch the window ledge for a third time. She was certain that if he did that one more time he'd damage both his hand and the windowsill. Instead, she settled for nodding in what she hoped was an understanding way as she tried to keep herself from wincing as Seamus insulted one of her uncles.

"I've seen him do terrible things and I have to face him every day, seeing how much you and Harry trust him when I know everything he's done. And then there's Malfoy, I saw through You-Know-Who's eyes as Lucius fucking Malfoy," Hermione tried not to let her look of horror at Seamus's language show as he continued talking, "Imperiused a woman into cutting off her own hand." Seamus shivered and for a minute Hermione thought he was going to be sick. Seamus shook his head and continued, "She could still feel the pain, Hermione, she knew what she was doing, she could feel what she was doing but couldn't stop herself- all for being a Muggleborn, and Snape just stood there."

"Have- have you tried having an Obliviator wipe your memory?" Hermione asked quietly, unable to stop her voice quavering, appalled by what Seamus had seen.

Seamus snorted. "If it were that simple, Hermione, I'd be back to normal. Wouldn't even have to go to the Ministry, me mam's an Obliviator. They're there in me mind alongside all of my memories, it'd be impossible to untangle them."

Hermione watched as the last of the Gryffindors trailed out of the common room, leaving only herself, Seamus, and Neville; the latter was sitting in a corner shuffling a deck of cards and trying his hardest to ignore her and Seamus's conversation. She didn't want to look at Seamus, it felt wrong seeing him so frightened and mentally unguarded, like she was intruding on something too private for her eyes.

Finally, curiosity regained its control on her and she turned slowly back to Seamus, asking in little more than a whisper, "How m-many of his memories do you have?"

She half hoped that Seamus hadn't heard her, she wasn't sure that she actually wanted to know about Voldemort's innermost thoughts, some of the things he'd seen and done were too dreadful to even think about.

Several seconds passed and Seamus didn't answer, Hermione felt a wave of relief wash over her, which was immediately dashed when Seamus licked his lips and said, "I'm not sure, all of them I think, up until that night."

Hermione didn't need Seamus to clarify which night he'd been referring to, they both knew he was talking about the night Harry's parents were killed.

At Seamus's revelation, a sudden idea hit her, an idea she was too terrified to voice. Watching Seamus wearily Hermione processed her idea, trying to decide how Seamus would react to it. He still looked tired, Harry had pointed out to her how he seemed to have permanent bags under his eyes and there was that unfocused look in his eyes, she remembered the name that Muggles had coined for a look like that, 'a thousand-yard stare'.

Taking a deep calming breath, Hermione looked around the common room, trying to delay herself asking the question, in the long run, it would help Harry, but what worried Hermione was how much it could hurt Seamus.

Hermione took a second deep breath and Seamus glared at her. "Whatever you have to say just spit it out." He said irritably, sitting up on the windowsill.

"Can you... can you actually view the memories? Like in a pensive?" Hermione took another deep breath, wondering if the questions sounded as intrusive in real life as it did in her head. "I don't want to upset you, but I think that if you could remember... some things, it could help Harry."

Seamus sat stock-still for three seconds, four seconds, five seconds. The common room was so silent that Hermione could hear her heart beating; any second now Seamus would shout at her, maybe even hex her. She'd had to ask though, Harry might not have agreed, but then again he'd always been stupid when it came to his own safety.

"Yes," Seamus said slowly, nodding his head at Hermione "I think I could see his memories... the book showed me everything he saw."

"I know this is a big ask, the very last thing you'd want to do, but I really think it'd help Harry." Hermione said in a rush, trying to emphasize that Seamus didn't have to do what she was asking.

Seamus pursed his lips. "It could help Harry?" Seamus asked, pausing for Hermione to nod her head. "How?"

"Sirius Black... look, you mustn't tell him why I asked, but the truth is that I don't trust him to not go after Black. I imagine Voldemort set up headquarters somewhere and it's highly likely that Black will be there. Or you might be able to see how Black escaped Azkaban. Anything that'll help the Aurors capture Black before Harry gets himself killed on a stupid, misguided revenge mission."

"You think Harry really will go after Black?" Seamus asked, his voice once again low.

Hermione pressed her lips together in a thin line and nodded. "Yes, Black is the reason that his parents are dead, that's enough of a reason for him to want to go after him, but he's also got it into his head that Black's a danger to our family." Hermione chewed her lower lip. "I daren't tell him this, but I doubt that Harry could survive a duel against Black."

"Okay." Seamus nodded.

"What?"

"I'll try," Seamus smiled weakly. "We can't have the 'chosen one' killed by a traitorous git like Black."

Seamus shuffled as far back onto the window ledge as he could, took a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting his entire body relax. His breathing turned ragged and Hermione could see his eyes moving jerkily beneath his eyelids. Seamus's arm moved down and he gripped the edge of the windowsill so tightly that his knuckles turned white as he began to shudder.

"Seamus!" Hermione shrieked and leapt to her feet, immediately putting a hand on Seamus's shoulder in an attempt to keep him still. "Seamus, wake up, Seamus." Hermione's voice got louder and higher as Seamus's convulsions became more and more violent.

Hermione felt Neville appear behind her as he put a hand on her shoulder. "What happened?" He asked, his eyes wide and terrified.

"I-I don't know." Hermione said, feeling her eyes begin to burn with tears. "I think he's having a fit. I-I think w-we need Madam Pomfrey." She whispered, feeling tears begin to spill down her face. "I sh-shouldn't have asked him to d-do it."

Neville squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. "I'll get a teacher. Stay with him, okay?"

Hermione nodded and just as Neville turned to leave the common room, Seamus stilled, his breathing evened out, and his eyes fluttered open. "Oh, Merlin, bloody hell. Hermione, it wasn't Black." Seamus looked up at them, his hand still clutching tightly onto the windowsill and his eyes as wide and terrified as Neville's. "Peter Pettigrew was the secret keeper he-" Seamus's voice cracked, "he betrayed the Potters and he's an Animagus... he could be anywhere."

Hermione let go of Seamus's shoulder and sniffed loudly, feeling slightly embarrassed for her reaction as she wiped here eyes on the tissue Neville offered. "We have to tell a professor, Severus or Charity."

Seamus shook his head. "There's no way in hell I'm going to Snape, we'll go to Remus, he knew Pettigrew and Black best."

Hermione nodded, still trying to avoid Seamus and Neville's eyes as she blew her nose loudly. "Right, I'll go get Harry's map and cloak, just in case we need them."

She turned and hurried upstairs, wrenching up the corner bottom of Harry's mattress and pulling the Marauder's Map and invisibility cloak out from beneath it. Stuffing both into a pocket of her robes, she turned and darted downstairs, arriving back in the common room in less than a minute.

The trio rushed out of the common room and down several flights of stairs to the Great Hall. Hermione, Neville and Seamus peeked around the door leading from the entrance hall into the Great Hall and looked up and down the staff table for Remus.

Seeing the staff table completely empty except for Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Hagrid the trio turned on their heels and without even stopping to check with one another darted up the closest staircase, heading for Remus's office.

As they neared the door to the office, Hermione slowed down as a wave of surprise followed by worry washed over her from Harry's mind. Harry's emotions threatened to engulf Hermione as she sped up, blinking rapidly to stay inside her own mind; it was now imperative that they find Remus and tell him about Peter Pettigrew, especially if something was happening with Harry.

Hermione slid to a halt next to Neville and Seamus who had already stopped at Remus's office door and were pounding their fists against the wood.

"Professor Lupin." Neville called into the wood of the door. "We need to talk to you, Professor, are you in there?"

"Shift out of the way, Neville." Seamus said pulling out his wand and nudging his friend out of the way.

"Seamus Finnegan, don't you dare!" Hermione hissed outraged at what Seamus was about to do. "You can't just break into a professor's office."

"We've got to tell him, Pettigrew's Animagus form is a rat, Hermione, he could be walking around the castle as we speak and Remus is the only one with any chance of recognising him." Seamus glared defiantly at her and pointed his wand at the lock of Remus's door. "Alohomora."

The door swung open and the three friends scurried inside, looking around for any sign of Remus. As she stepped into the office, Hermione felt another wave of worry from Harry and felt herself momentarily slip into his mind.

She was running through the Forbidden Forest, someone was running along behind her and she could see Cosmo running through the forest several metres ahead of her.

Blinking hurriedly, Hermione felt herself slip back into her own mind as she pulled Harry's map out of her pocket. Wincing, she said, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Hermione scanned the map, eyes immediately drawn to the Forbidden Forest where she could see six tiny dots, labelled as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Percy Weasley, Dean Thomas and, to Hermione's horror, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, moving quickly away from the school.

"Oh, Merlin." Neville gasped, horrified, staring out of Remus's office window, which looked out across the Quidditch pitch and at the Forbidden Forest.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, hurrying to the window and peering out over Neville's shoulder.

"Professor Lupin," Neville pointed, ashen-faced towards a shape hurrying across the grounds before disappearing into the Forbidden Forest. "It's a full moon." He said in a barely audible whisper.

"That's the least of our worries." Hermione said dismissively, turning away from the window and once again scanning the map in an attempt to work out where Pettigrew was leading Harry, Ron, Percy, Dean, and Black. "Severus makes Wolfsbane for him every month."

"Hermione," Neville said, his voice shaking slightly as he tugged on the sleeve of her robes.

"Neville, you killed a basilisk, you really don't need to worry about a drugged up werewolf." Hermione said, not taking her eyes of the map as she tried to formulate a plan.

"You're not listening to me." Neville hissed. "He hasn't taken the potion, so in about two hours there's going to be a dangerous werewolf running around the school grounds."

"What?" Hermione gasped, looking up from the map and feeling her heart freeze inside her chest. "He hasn't...?" She looked up at Neville and then down at the desk where Neville was looking. "The potion's still there." Hermione stated, staring at the goblet of potion on Remus's desk.

"You don't need to worry." Seamus said peering out of the window past his two friends. "There're enough creatures in the forest to entertain a werewolf for the night; he won't come near the castle."

"You don't understand." Hermione cried, holding out the map. "We've got to go now. They're all in massive danger! I don't think they even understand. I think I'd rather face the werewolf."

"What're you on about, Hermione?" Seamus asked, stepping away from the window and sitting on the edge of Remus's desk.

"Harry, Ron, Dean, and Percy are in the forest with Black and Pettigrew." She whispered, barely able to vocalize what she'd seen on the map. "They don't know that Black isn't the killer."

"What?" Seamus snapped snatching the map from Hermione and hurriedly scanning it. "You didn't think that it might be slightly important to tell us?" He asked his voice rising with every word.

"I-I was trying to work out a plan, I can't do a P-Patronus like Harry so we can't tell him that way and I'm not sure that we can go to Severus, I think he'd attack Black and ask questions later." Hermione whispered.

"Well you'd better have a bloody good plan." Seamus growled turning back to the window and looking outside as though he hoped he'd be able to see their friend's through the window.

"We need brooms, it's the only way we'll be able to catch them and then get out of the forest before the moon rises." Hermione glanced up at Neville who had moved next to Seamus to peer at the map and pursed her lips. "I can't think of another way, Neville and I aren't good on brooms, but we'd need three if we want to get everyone back out of the forest safely."

"Brooms." Neville repeated in horror.

Hermione nodded solemnly, understanding the look of horror on Neville's face. "Yes, I can't think of any other way to get to them."