Hermione screamed as something small, soft, and fury landed on her head. She fell down to the ground in shock, and quickly rolled away. The little thing was on the ground next to her, quivering, and making strange squeaky noises.

"What on earth?" Hermione mumbled as she got to her knees and slowly crawled towards the creature. "It's okay little fellow, I wont hurt you."

"What is it?" Draco asked, after overcoming his shock from Hermione's sudden scream.

"I don't know…" Hermione said curiously, slowly extending her hand out to the small creature.

It looked like a soft toy, and wasn't much bigger either. It's brown fur was stringy yet soft, and it was currently wrapped up in a quivering ball. When it smelt Hermione's hand, the little animal uncurled it's head and looked at her.

It had small little ears that were in a circle shape, with two large brown eyes. It had a button nose, and a thin mouth.

Slowly, it reached out for Hermione's hand, and she saw it had two lanky arms, with tiny paws on the end. It's legs were similar, except they could bent so he could balance on them like a cat. Hermione even saw his belly, which was a light brown colour, and his small tail.

"Aw, you are so cute." Hermione said, a girly expression coming over her face.

"you wont say that when it bites you!" Malfoy warned.

"Oh Malfoy, don't be such a drama queen!" Hermione snapped. The little creature recoiled at her tone, but then it quickly scampered up her arm, and sat on her shoulder, burying its head in her hair.

Malfoy chuckled. "Being friendly with the natives again?"

"There is nothing wrong with it." Hermione spat at him. "I'm going to keep him, if he stays…"

"Granger, how do you know he isn't like the wooden thing?"

"You mean Wilac?" Hermione said softly.

"Yes, that one." Malfoy said dismissively.

"He doesn't appear to be able to speak." Hermione said distracted, trying to look at the thing sitting on her shoulder.

"Maybe not, but he can still bite!"

"How do you know that?" Hermione asked. "He is harmless. He would have attacked by now if he was going to."

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Be it on your head Granger if it bites you on the neck. And remember, I warned you." He looked around then added "We should keep moving."

Hermione nodded, then started walking, not realizing that she was actually smiling.

Malfoy looked at her then rolled his eyes again. He didn't get that child. One minute, she was all tense and worried about something, then she's screaming, then she's smiling.

He fell into step behind her, and they silently made their way through the thick forest.

After a while, Hermione stopped walking and sniffed. Her nose wrinkled up as a light smell of something foul drifted through her nostrils.

"Ergh." She said in disgust. "What is that smell?"

Malfoy came up behind her, and gagged.

It smelt like meat that was rotting, then a strong vinegar tinge. It gave the two teenagers Goosebumps.

Both of them covered their noses as they looked around.

"Should we keep going this way?" Hermione asked, her voice sounding oddly like she had a terrible cold.

Malfoy thought for a minute before nodding. "The smell is nearly unbearable, however, it could be the Dead lake."

Hermione agreed.

So, after taking a few steadying breaths, they continued walking in the direction of the putrid smell, pinching their noses with their fingers.

Soon, both of them felt like they were going to faint. The smell was so bad, it got into their noses, no matter what they did, and poisoned their lungs- at least, it felt like that.

Hermione, who was trying not to breath any more then was necessary, could hear a strange sound coming from somewhere ahead of them. It sounded like something thick and goopy that was bubbling away.

They climbed a small hill, then decided to rest. Hermione, who only paused for a minute, stood then started to walk again, even though her feet protested.

The little creature on her shoulder hadn't made a sound, it just kept it's head buried in her hair, and shivered every now and then.

"Where are you going?" Malfoy asked, massaging his ribs.

"I'm going to keep walking." Hermione replied over her shoulder. "I cant sit still."

"Yes, I can see that." Malfoy said leaning back on his elbows. "Well I'm going to have a nap, so scream if you need me."

Hermione rolled her eyes. Sure. She'd scream.

Slowly, Hermione walked down the other side of the hill, slipping a little on the moist leaves. Fog had started to create a layer of mist near the ground, so Hermione was extra careful on where she put her feet.

The trees loomed over her, tall, thick and grey. They almost looked dead, and Hermione would have thought they were, if she didn't spot the leaves at the top of them.

As Hermione was studying the trees around her, she never saw the fog suddenly drop away, or that there were no trees in front of her. Suddenly, she heard a strange noise from behind her. Hermione spun around, and continued walking, though now backwards. She couldn't see anything behind her that screamed danger, so she was about to turn around and keep walking when her foot ran out of ground to walk on.

Hermione rocked, her balance totally off as she tried to stay on level ground. Turning her head, Hermione nearly screamed when she saw it was a fifty meter fall to the ground below her. She was on the edge of a cliff.

Hermione tried to lean forward, so she'd fall forward onto the ground, and not backwards for a fifty meter drop. The little creature on her shoulder was shaking, and leaped off her, landing on the ground in front of her. It turned around to face Hermione.

However, what the creature didn't know, was that it had pushed off Hermione quite strongly, and it turns out that it's legs had been enough to push Hermione just that little, and caused her to scream, and fall backwards, off the cliff.



Jagged pieces of rock flew past Hermione's face at phenomenal speed. She reached out and tried to grab something. Her hand cut on a sharp bit of rock, but Hermione still tried.

About half way down, Hermione managed to get a grip on a long, but thin ledge. Her heart was pounding in her ears and her breath was quick and uneven.

The ledge wasn't large enough for Hermione to climb up on so she simply dangled from it and tried to scream, but it came out short and wasn't very loud.



The little creature crept slowly forward, and peered over the edge of the cliff, and saw the girl with pretty nice smelling hair had caught hold of part of the cliff, and was simply dangling from it, trying to get her breath back.

The creature turned around and ran, surprisingly fast, back to where the boy was resting. It ran on all fours, like a lion, but of course, it wasn't a lion.

In minutes, the creature was scampering up the hill, and found the blond boy lying on the ground, sprawled out, eyes closed and breathing calmly.

The creature ran around the boys body, and sat next to his ear. What should it do to wake the boy? It squeaked, but the boy didn't stir. Slowly, the creature reached out and lightly hit the boy on the cheek.

Draco sat up quickly, and nearly scared the little creature half to death. Draco looked around himself, and spotted the cowering animal in seconds.

"Hey…what?" Draco frowned. Wasn't that Granger's new pet?

The creature, who had recovered from shock, looked at the boy with big pleading eyes, and pointed in Hermione's direction.

Draco's frown deepened. "Where's Granger?" he asked the creature.

The little thing scrambled forward and started tugging at Malfoy's clothing.

"Hey! Oi! That's a good pair of pants…" Draco shouted. "What do you want?"

The little creature, who had no idea what it could do to get the message across thought of something. It quickly climbed Malfoy's arm, then buried its head in his hair. Then, it looked at Draco's face, and pointed down the hill.

"She's down there?" Draco said, slowly catching on.

The creature nodded vigorously.

"Well then, why are you here?" Draco asked. "I want to keep sleeping-peacefully" he added. He shooed the creature off his shoulder. "Go play games with Granger and tell her that you're her pet, not mine."

He slowly lay back down.

The little creature nearly rolled its eyes. How thick was this boy?

Deciding there was no other option; the creature quickly ran to Malfoy's feet and pulled one of his shoes off.

"Oi!" Malfoy roared, sitting up. "Give me that!"

The creature ran off down the hill, cradlying the shoe, which was nearly as big as him.

"I'll turn you into a tea cozy! Give me my shoe you little native!" Malfoy screamed scrambling to his feet then gave chase to the little creature, running with one shoe and a sock.

:

The creature stopped about ten meters from the cliff, and sat the shoe down. That thing was heavy for such a small thing to carry.

Malfoy came into view, puffing and screaming insults.

He slowed and snatched up his shoe, and put it on his foot. "Now, come here you little-"

He stopped when he couldn't find the little creature who only moments before had been sitting beside his shoe. Then he spotted him over by a cliff edge, pointing down.

"What is it?" Draco slowly walked forward, and peered over the edge. he saw Hermione, and nearly shouted in surprise. "What are you doing down there?" he yelled.

Hermione glanced up and sighed with relief then shouted back "Just admiring the amazing cliff face!"

"Really?" Malfoy replied shocked.

"No you twit! I fell! Now help me up!"

Malfoy slowly nodded. "Oh, so that's what the thing was trying to tell me."

"What thing?" Hermione screamed.

"The fury one."

"Huh?"

"It led me here."

"Well then." Hermione yelled. "Hurry up and help me!"

"How?" Draco shouted.

"I don't know!" Hermione screamed. "Find something! And Quickly!"

Malfoy turned around and searched the ground. God, no patience.

He walked back along the trail for a minute or so and found a long vine hanging from a tree. He began tugging at it, and heard it snap.



Hermione's fingers were beginning to tire, as were her arms. She groaned. Hurry up Malfoy! She repeated in her mind. Please hurry.

Suddenly, she heard something form her right and looked over. Hermione screamed.

Somehow, a long snake, about two meters, was slithering along the ledge, towards her fingers.

"Malfoy!" she shrieked. "Hurry up!"



Malfoy heard Hermione's scream and rolled his eyes. then he noted the shear panic that was in her voice- well, she was panicked before, but her voice was high pitched and sounded totally rocked.

He hurriedly coiled up the long vine, and ran back towards the cliff. He looked over and saw Hermione's wide eyes watching a long thin black line slither towards her.

Malfoy tied the vine around the trunk of a large tree, then tied it around his waist. He took a deep breath and began to quickly scale the cliff, descending to Hermione and the snake.

"Now," he said amazingly calm. "In a moment, you're going to jump, and I'll catch you."

"Excuse me?" Hermione cried. "I think not!"

"Granger!" Malfoy snapped. "You're going to do it. And I'll catch you then we'll climb back up."

Hermione closed her eyes then nodded. "Okay."

As it turns out, Draco was coming down on Hermione's left, while the snake was on her right. It would be a close call- the snake was only meters away, and Draco was about a meter above her.

Draco was roughly hanging next to her, and Hermione was getting ready to let go of the ledge. She had her eyes closed shaking her head. She couldn't believe this was happening.

"Granger!" Draco said angrily. "Open your damn eyes! Right now, on three, your going to jump at me okay? Good. Ready?"

Hermione opened her eyes and nodded feebly.

"Okay…" Malfoy took a steadying breath. "One…"

Hermione had almost forgotten about the snake. She was going to jump. She was hanging from a cliff.

"Two…"

Oh crap, what was she about do? Oh yeah.

"Three-"

At that very second, the snake reached Hermione's right hand, slithered over it and quickly tried to launch itself at her left hand.

Hermione screamed and let go, and immediately began to fall.

Draco reached forward and just grabbed her hand.

At the sudden jerk of added weight however, the vine snapped, and the two of them began to fall the twenty five meters towards the ground.



Dumbledore looked at Harry and thought for a moment. Surely he wasn't silly enough to put something important in the letter…surely.

Harry, who was absolutely furious with himself, had sat down, with his head in his hands, desperately trying to remember.

Finally, Dumbledore looked around his office. It was still crammed with people from the Order, who were all murmuring quietly amongst themselves.

"I think we shall end the meeting here for the night." He said. "It's getting late."

The people in his office starting leaving, until only Dumbledore himself, Severus, Harry, Ron and Minerva were left. Lupin had also, surprising, excused himself and exited the office.

"Harry, don't stress." Albus said calmly. "It will come to you in time. Now, we must decide on what we will do next."

"Do you have any idea where Mr. Malfoy and Miss Granger are?" Minerva asked, yawning slightly.

Albus shook his head slowly. "Not yet." He glanced at Severus who was wide awake and showing no signs of tiredness. "Severus, I wonder, could I ask you to get an ear or two out in the towns around the Malfoy Manor? See if anyone has seen our missing students."

Severus, who had picked up on Dumbledore's emphasis on the word "Ears" raised an eye brow. "Sir? Where am I going to get ears from?"

"I am sure that Ron's brothers may be able to help you out." Dumbledore said, looking over at Ron with a smile on his lips.

Ron smiled back weakly. "Yeah, Fred and George-"

"I am sure those two ex students will be glad to get some proper business." Snape said, sneering at Ron.

"Hey, their joke shop is doing really well!" Ron replied, glaring at the potions master. "Last month alone they sold-"

"Spare me of your tales Mr. Weasley." Snape cut in.

"I am sure however," Dumbledore said quickly. "That Harry and Ron would like to accompany you Severus, and make sure that you get a good deal."

"Yeah, I'll make sure he gets a good deal." Ron muttered.

Harry sniggered.

Dumbledore was smiling kindly at Snape who glared back.

"Tomorrow, you three will leave, and return with some nice ears to share. Now, off to bed boys."

Harry and Ron left the office, leaving the three teachers in it alone.



It felt like Harry had only just put his head to the pillow when suddenly he heard a bellowing voice that echoed in his ears. He sat bold upright, and quickly looked around.

Ron seemed to have heard it as well, as he too was sitting up, rubbing his eyes and looking around widely.

"GET UP!"

"Who is that?" Ron asked. "And why aren't they disturbed?" he jabbed a thumb at the other boys in their dorm who still slept soundly.

"I think it's our own personal wake up call." Harry replied glumly getting to his feet.

"Oh, not him." Ron groaned.

Both boys quickly got dressed, Harry in blue jeans, dark red shirt and school cloak, while Ron wore torn jeans, and orange shirt. They made sure that they pocketed their wands. At Harry's reminder, Ron quickly grabbed his cloak, and followed Harry out of their dorm and down into the common room.

They found Snape standing outside the portrait hole, tapping his foot.

"Finally!" he snapped when they emerged from the common room. "Let's go!"

Harry looked at Ron and they both followed Snape down the corridor and down into the entrance hall.

No one was up at this hour. When they were outside, Harry saw it was barely dawn. He groaned. Though, it was lucky, someone may ask questions if they saw Harry and Ron leaving the school grounds with Snape.

When they did leave the grounds, Snape stopped, turned around and grabbed them both by the shirts and apparated.



Once the world had stopped spinning, Harry noticed they were standing outside the Leaky Cauldron. Snape quickly let them go, and marched through the door, and into the pub.

Harry and Ron glanced at each other before following.

As always, the pub was dim, but they could make out the shapes of tables and chairs and wound their way through to the back where Snape stood waiting for them.

In a few minutes, they were pushing their way down the crowded street of Diagon Ally, towards Fred and George's joke shop.

It was extremely crowded when they walked through the doors even though it was only early morning. Snape looked at the shelves around him with distaste, but Harry and Ron immediately started picking things off the shelf, looking at them.

Harry felt a strong pull on his collar and looked around to see Snape standing there, holding onto Ron as well.

"Do you think we're on an excursion?" he asked furiously. "Put that down Potter!"

Harry regretfully returned the odd looking ball back to its position on the shelf and followed Snape towards the counter where a long queue had formed. People cradled their products in their arms, all with excited smiles on their faces.

Snape didn't join the end of the line. Instead, he pushed his way right up to the counter, dragging Harry and Ron along with him.

People shouted in protest, but Snape ignored them.

When they approached the counter, Fred, who was serving the customers, looked up and nearly fell off his stool.

"What the hell are you doing- Oh, hi Harry." He smiled at Harry who returned the greeting. "Little bro." Fred nodded to Ron.

"Excuse me." Snape said silkily. "Where is someone who can serve us?"

"You're buying them?" Fred asked, gesturing to Harry and Ron, who sniggered.

Snape sneered. "No. Now, are you going to help us or not?"

Fred studied his old professor, then quickly disappeared behind a small curtain that covered a door. "George!"

In a few minutes, both returned. George looked at Snape, then forced a smile onto his face. "How can I help?"

"I want to know if you sell listening ears." Snape said, completely aware that he was holding up the line, who were already mad at him.

George frowned. "Spying on someone?"

Snape gritted his teeth. "Why I am purchasing it is no concern of yours." He sneered.

George shrugged. "fine, as long as you pay. Follow me."

George led them over to a shelf, and held out one of the small ears Harry had seen many times.

Snape looked at it with no interest on his face. After a moment, he grabbed about 8 of them and shoved galleons into George's hand.

"If you've short changed us-" George said, but at the glare Snape gave him, he looked at Harry and Ron. "Bye."

"Cya George." Harry said waving.

"Bye." Ron smiled.

All over- just kidding.

Well, this chapter is over anyway.

PLEASE REVIEW! I'm afraid that no one likes it any more! Reassure me if you want me to update!