As Hermione approached the stone gargoyle that protected the Headmasters office, butterflies began flitting about in her stomach. She didn't know why she was nervous, she had no reason to be, but she was. She stood there for a moment, taking deep calming breaths, when all of a sudden, the Gargoyle popped into life and startled the dickens out of her.

"Password?"

After catching her breath, she remembered that she didn't know the password. 'Well, it has to be some sort of sweets; he's always used the names of sweets as his passwords.'

"Cauldron Cakes?" She looked at the statue in amazement as it bowed its head ever so slightly and jumped out of the way, revealing a spiraling staircase. Hermione jumped on and allowed herself to ride the way to the top, her butterflies forgotten. Once at the top, she lifted her hand to knock, but before her hand could hit the door, it swung open, revealing a tall man with long, blonde hair, pale skin, and a slightly pointed face. Her brow's furrowed; she could have sworn she had seen that man before. She looked up and watched as the man's face twisted into a sneer that few people could manage and it hit her, Malfoy. She suppressed a sneer as she stepped aside and allowed the man to pass, and stepped into Dumbledore's office. She stood only a step or two inside and had not made any indication that she was there, but it seemed there was no need. Dumbledore, though his back was turned to her, lifted his hand from where he was feeding Fawkes, and gestured for her to sit down in one of the seats in front of his desk. "Come in Miss Granger, I suspect you are here to know how the time turner is progressing?"

She nodded her head as she watched the Headmaster turn from Fawkes, who was gladly munching on some new treat, walk over towards his desk and sit down behind it. She watched as he looked around for something on his desk, a tray of some sort, and offered it to her, "Lemon Drop?"

Hermione hesitantly took one, hoping that it might quell the butterflies that had once again set up camp in her gut. His face seemed to light up when she took the treat, "Nice to see that someone else enjoys them. Now, about your time turner; I must say, I haven't been able to make much progress so far. These have not been introduced yet into the wizarding world and I suspect that most of them are lying somewhere in the department of mysteries. But don't fret, I will be able to work it out, and perhaps, if you would like, you could help me with it during the holiday break, seeing as how your group of friends will be gone."

Hermione nodded her head and the butterflies flitting about waned. "I would love to Professor."

Hermione watched as the twinkle in his eye grew as he nodded. "Now, I suspect that will be all Miss Granger."

Hermione nodded and made to leave the office, but just as she was about to step out the door, she turned back to the headmaster, "Um, Professor, I was wondering. What was that man doing in your office just now?"

"Lucius was just making sure that the school was functioning in proper working order."

Hermione nodded and walked back out of the office, down the moving staircase and out of the gargoyle. She looked down at her watch, two minutes past curfew. Groaning she tried to make her way as quickly as possible. She wasn't exactly in the mood to get chewed out by any of the teachers.

She made it to the tower in record time, and quickly mumbled the password, wanting to get to sleep as fast as possible, her mind was buzzing and she felt slightly sick. She rushed through the common room and up to the Head Girls quarters, feeling yet another pang of jealousy course through her system as she remembered that they weren't hers anymore, she was just a guest. Pushing that quickly to the back of her mind she walked into the room, but was stopped by Lily, it seems she wanted to talk.

Ron poked his head out of the Room of Requirement, checking to see if anyone was around. When he was satisfied that the halls were empty he looked back into the room and nodded, then he slipped out, walking down the corridor as if nothing was happening. When he was at the end of the hall, he gave one quick look back at the room and watched as Blaise walked out, moving in the other direction. Nodding his head and absentmindedly rubbing his left arm , he walked back up go Gryffindor tower, completely oblivious to the boy hidden under the cloak, just a few paces behind him.

Harry couldn't believe his eyes, he just couldn't. They must have been playing tricks on him, there was no way that Ron would have willingly met up with that Death Eater in the Room of Requirement, no way! 'Maybe its for their project, they just want to work somewhere private, somewhere that no one will find them.' Harry kept beating that thought deep in his mind, trying to get himself to believe it, but he just couldn't. He tried to think up all kinds of reasons for them to be meeting in secret as he waited for the two to come out, 'Maybe Ron is gay and he's having an affair with Blaise.' After shivering in disgust for a minute or two, he quickly dismissed that thought from his mind, Ron was as straight as a board, and apparently, as stiff as one. At least, that's what Padma Patil said the other night. Harry shivered once more, trying to bleach the thought from his memory. Harry shook his head, trying to find out the mystery that was quickly becoming his best friend. There was something wrong with him lately; he just hadn't been himself all year.

Harry tensed as he watched the door open and Ron poke his head out and look around for people in the halls. 'At least I have my cloak on.' Harry sucked in his breath as Ron finally exited the room and rubbed his arm, which Harry found to be very odd, and walked right past Harry, but not before looking back at the room once more, where Blaise was now exiting.

Once Ron was out of sight, Harry pulled off the cloak, it wasn't curfew just yet, and began walking back up to Gryffindor tower when he felt his scar burn. He closed his eyes as they began to water and started walking the other way, towards Dumbledore's office. Voldemort was happy again, and he seemed to be growing happier by the second, as Harry's scar began to hurt worse, to the point that he wanted to bang his head on the stone wall, just to try and make the pain stop. He made it a few more steps down the Hall before he collapsed and slipped into darkness.

Harry opened his eyes and found that he was no longer in the castle. Panicked he looked around and saw the same graveyard that he had been in during his fourth year when he had battled Voldemort. The pain in his scar was gone, but he found that he could not lift his hand to touch his forehead; in fact, he couldn't move anything, at least not willfully. He kept looking around, as if to find some route of escape, until his eyes rested on a mass of black robes lying on the ground in front of him. The image was blurry and the person was cloaked, so Harry couldn't make out who he was, but that wasn't the thing that was bothering him. Harry at this point was wondering why someone in black robes and a mast would be kneeling at his feet, as this was obviously a Death Eater. And then it hit him. He looked down at his hands and saw that they were ghostly white, closely resembling a skeleton, he was Lord Voldemort, or at least, he was in his head again. Silently, he watched as the person stood up once more and lifted the sleeve on their left arm. He watched in horror as Voldemort raised his wand, muttering a strange incantation, and a black burn appeared on the person's arm. He felt a sickening glee rise up in him as the screams of the man, and the smell of burning flesh rose in the air. He felt his mouth open and a devilish laugh escape his lips as the man before him clutched his arm and fell to the ground. Once again, Harry slipped into darkness.