"What do you mean, Harry is Voldemort?" Hermione asked sharply. Flora sat cross-legged on the foot of her bed, not looking at her. The curtains around her bed were drawn, screening them from the rest of the sleeping seventh years, but it was a Sunday morning, so almost nobody was up this early anyways (some never made it down to breakfast at all).

"Harry has been sneaking around most nights, preparing a potion as part of some ritual. I don't know what it does – I only caught a few glimpses. It's from a book on blood magic. I've been helping him. But it's not Harry," Flora rushed out in one gasp, rubbing tears from her eyes with the palms of her hands.

"Ok, I got that part," Hermione nodded slowly, "But what makes you think it's not Harry."

"He thinks I'm Hestia," Fora replied, as if that explained everything.

"Um, most of the school is convinced that you're Hestia. Incidentally, why ARE you pretending to be your sister?" Hermione asked. Hermione always did have trouble staying focused when presented with a mystery.

"That's not important. What is important is that the real Harry never called me Hestia. But this Harry, the one at night, always did."

Hermione nodded. She had so many questions bubbling in her head – what was Harry doing, why had Flora only now come to her, how come she was suddenly so loquacious when last year she had barely managed two words interspersed with a meaningful glare. "Wait here. I'm gong to go get Ron, and we'll talk to Harry." She stopped when Flora grabbed her arm.

"Harry is not up in his dorm – he was brewing his potion until dawn. He hasn't had time to sneak back up."

Hermione looked at Flora. She could sense that the petite girl wasn't telling her something. Probably a lot of somethings. But that could wait until she had Ron. She hadn't had her coffee yet, and having a second head to think this through would help. Even if the afore mentioned head was usually stuffed full of lunch-meat. "Meet me in the charms classroom."

/\/\MLC/\/\

"So start from the beginning," Ron rubbed his eyes. Hermione had woken him up from a sound sleep and dragged him down to the charms classroom at this ungodly hour on a Sunday morning to meet with Harry's fruitcake friend. He was annoyed and having a hard time processing everything.

"And you were right – Harry wasn't in the dorm," Hermione added as an aside to Flora.

"He wasn't?" Ron looked up startled.

"Flora says that Harry is possessed by Voldemort," Hermione repeated.

Ron sat up straight as some cerebral processes finally kicked in. "He must have a Horcrux on him. We need to trick him into an empty classroom and strip him naked."

He didn't notice both girls blush crimson.

"Th-that might not work." Hermione cleared her throat to cover her embarrassment. "If the possessing spirit is smart, it could have hidden its phylactery somewhere – in Harry's bed or in the dorm or something. We first need to find out if it really is Harry, or if he's been Voldemort pretending to be Harry this whole time." Hermione wasn't certain if that was actually the most important thing to check first, but it was the most important to her. She needed to know if the guy she had been dating (been kissing) was actually Harry or.. something else.

"Ok, let's go ask." Ron stood up. He was always more comfortable with action than all this plotting. "If he's not in the dorm, he's probably in the great hall, getting breakfast."

"Wait, how will we know..."

"We'll figure it out," Ron lead the way, forcing Flora to jog to keep up with her shorter legs.

The three of them trouped down into the hall. It was still early, and there were just a scattering of students eating breakfast – mostly early risers and exercise freaks. And there amongst them sat Harry.

"Hi," Hermione said as she dropped into the seat next to him. She didn't want to be sitting for this, but she needed not to draw attention to this conversation.

"Oh, hello," Harry smiled when he saw her. He had dark bags under his eyes, like he hadn't slept, even though he sounded cheerful and awake. He leaned over to give Hermione a quick kiss. She jerked back. "What?"

"Where were you, Harry?" Ron asked.

"I.. now that you mention it, it was rather odd - I woke up in the transfiguration classroom. I must have been sleep walking or something. I guess the finals are are getting to me," He replied awkwardly.

Hermione looked away.

"What? What's wrong?" Harry looked from her to Ron. Ron wouldn't meet his eyes either.

Flora stepped out from behind Ron, where she had been hiding.

"Oh, hi, Flora. What are you doing here?"

"Harry," She looked him squarely in the eyes, "Do you know why I'm not a virgin?"

Harry blanched and looked away before glancing at Hermione. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"It's Harry," Flora replied with a sigh of relief. "The real Harry."

/\/\MLC/\/\

Flashback: third of three

[[July 8th, 1997]]

Harry glanced over at Flora. "Don't worry. Everything will be over tonight." It was the day after Flora had braved Voldemort in the Little Hangleton graveyard. The day she had invited him to come to the cabin to kill Harry. The Imerio'ed Dementor was waiting, locked in the root cellar. All they had to do was wait for sunset and then play out their roles.

Flora nodded and hugged herself, rubbing her hands on her shoulders. It wasn't cold in the cabin, but even locked away the Dementor was having an effect. It was subtle at first, a slight chilling and a sense of moroseness, but after a half hour they were both feeling cold and very depressed.

Flora shivered. Her thoughts kept circling back to her flaws. And she had many – Step-Mother enumerated them often. She tried to think of something else, but it was hard.

And they had another 8 hours of this.

"Hey, it's ok," Harry came over and draped a coat over Flora. She didn't reply, instead just sitting on the bed, looking down at the floor. Harry could feel it too - the sense of despondency, the feeling that nothing you did would ever matter. That you should just give up and curl into a ball.

"Expecto Patronum." Flora looked up with a gasp at the change in ambiance.

"It's pretty," she whispered as the stag pranced silently in front of the cellar door, trying to find some way to get inside.

Harry sat down next to her and rubbed her back. "It's still early, do you want to take a nap for a couple of hours? I can keep watch." They didn't dare go outside, for fear that Voldemort might use some scrying or something to spy out the cabin before Apparating here. That was the rational thing to do, after all.

Flora lay down on top of the covers, but the cold and despair started to seep back in. With the Patronus trapped on the floor above the Dementor's aura was reduced but it still pulled at the corners of her mind. Flora sat back up. "No. I can't sleep - I'll have nightmares."

The two sat next to each other for several moments. The Patronus pawed at the floor one last time and dissipated. The cold came back full force.

Harry put his arm around the petite Slytherin and turned her to face him, kissing her hard.

"Why?"

"Because." He kissed her again. He didn't really know why he was doing this himself. Maybe it was because he was frustrated that even though she was willing to undertake something this dangerous with him, she never explained why she did it or told him anything. Or maybe it was because he was angry that she was forcing him to take this insane risk in the first place. But this was a way to push her out of her comfort zone. Make her off balance. Maybe make her a little uncomfortable. At the very least it was a way to take control of this crazy situation that he had been forced into. Whatever the reason, he leaned into her, pushing up against her and deepening the kiss. As he did, she put her arms around him and gave a small moan. When she did, neither one of them could feel the pull of the Dementor at all.

Harry broke off for a moment. "I don't know if right now is the time..." feeling suddenly ambivalent about what he was doing.

They sat sat staring at each other. Flora for once had a natural looking smile as she gazed up at Harry. Harry wasn't certain if he wanted her to be smiling. She needed to be punished for all the stupid stuff that she had caused. Except she looked pretty when she smiled. He ran a finger down her cheek. But after a bit, the smile withered away.

"The Dementor..." Flora almost whined as the cold from the Dementor came back.

'She must be more sensitive to it,' Which made sense - happy thoughts seemed to help, but her life had even less happiness than even his.

He impetuously leaned down and kissed Flora again, taking charge. They stayed like that for a few minutes, until she gave a squeak as Harry's hands started wandering over her body and up under her shirt, up to her small breasts. But after a moment she nodded, reached up to start unbuttoning Harry's shirt as well.

Neither one had any experience with this sort of thing, but they took their time, kissing and touching for a long time before moving on to anything more. It was almost noon when they were finally were spent, with Flora nestled in the crook of Harry's arm as they lay naked on the bed under the thin blanket. The heat of the stove was enough to drive off any physical chill, and they did not feel any effects from the Dementor.

Harry stared up at the ceiling. He had Evanesco'ed everything, as if to hide the evidence, before snuggling up to Flora. He wasn't certain if what he had done was the right thing. Actually, he was pretty certain that it wasn't. He had taken advantage of Flora, letting his anger take control. But his guilty musing were interrupted by Flora rolling up onto an elbow so that she could look directly into his face. They stayed like that for a moment, look at each other from inches apart, before Flora whispered, "I love you".

/\/\MLC/\/\

[[now]]]

Hermione looked between Harry and Flora and sucked in a sharp breath, "When.."

"Last summer, before we were dating" Harry muttered.

"Cor mate!" Ron finally caught on, "You actually did it!"

Hermione turned and back-handed him right in the breadbasket. It was only through sheer force of will that she prevented herself from running out of the room. "How does this prove anything?"

"The fake hadn't even known that I wasn't a virgin."

Hermione put her head down into her hands "Ok. I guess that's good enough. That gives us a time limit – we need to solve this by sundown tonight."

"Um, can somebody tell me what's going on?" Harry asked plaintively.

"Every night, you're possessed by Voldemort. You must have a Horcrux somewhere on you," Ron blurted out.

Seeing Harry's horrified face Hermione reached out and tentatively hugged him.

"If we can't find the Horcrux, we need to find some way to stop it from possessing Harry, " Flora interrupted, "and we need to find out what Voldemort was doing in the Chamber of Secrets. Whatever it was, it probably had to do with taking control of Harry permanently."

Hermione let go of Harry, "and we have to do it by sundown tonight. Lets get started."

/\/\MLC/\/\

"Are you certain I went down there?" Harry pointed into the tube leading down to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Yes, but Voldemort made stairs appear." While the other three students flinched at the mention of Harry being possessed by Voldemort, Flora reveled in the revelation. It was like a weight had been taken off her chest.

Harry didn't hate her.

The group had assembled in the Myrtle bathroom. The ghost girl chose that moment to swoop over their heads. "Hi, Harry. You look a lot better than when I last saw you," She batted here eyelashes.

Hermione rolled her eyes at the dead girl's antics, but when Flora took a protective step closer to Harry, she immediately glared at the other girl.

Flora didn't care - Harry wasn't embarrassed of her.

"Sorry, I don't know how to do that. But that's why we brought brooms." Harry steered the conversation back to the relevant (yet disturbing) topic and quickly mounted his broom. He desperately wanted this all to be a practical joke, or a mistake. Or something. As he settled in, Hermione awkwardly straddled the broom behind him, wrapping her arms possessively around his midsection. Flora sat down just as awkwardly (though for completely different reasons) behind Ron, and they quickly made their way down. Fortunately, the tunnel was clear of any muck, so accidentally brushing against a wall didn't end with them covered in filth.

Surprisingly, the potion was still simmering away on the transfigured work bench, off to one side of the entrance. It was a deep burgundy red.

Ron drew his wand and moved to stand guard, in case something leaped out at them from the vast chamber. He had bad memories of being down here before.

Hermione meanwhile barely glanced at the room, instead focusing on the task at hand – saving her boyfriend. She turned off the potion and poured some off into a vial for later evaluation before scooping up the notes that were piled to the side of the cutting board, skimming through them as she sorted them into order. "This looks like the recipe for a blood ward – probably the same sort as your mother used to protect you.. But I can't read the scribbles in the margins."

Harry peered over her shoulder. "They're written in parseltongue." He frowned as he tried to make out the crabbed handwriting, "they are modifications – most of it looks minor, but there are a couple of places where ingredients are swapped. For instance, it calls for replacing bear claws with serpent skin, and here at the end for trading the blood of a nursing mother with that of a virgin."

Hermione glanced awkwardly at Flora. "Do you have any idea what those changes are for?"

"Well, if the potion is going to be used to establish a ward… If they are trying to make a symbolic link.." Flora prevaricated as she pondered, slightly embarrassed – she was supposed to be the potions expert in the group, but she was coming up empty.

"Well, the nursing mother is obvious – a mother is notoriously protective," Ron commented. "Look at my mom – She would wrestle a dragon to keep us kids safe."

Flora huffed, annoyed at not having thought of that. But then, that sort of behavior was not part of her experience. Step-mother wouldn't lift a finger to protect her unless not doing so would cost her more.

"And the same for the bear claws – bears are protective of their young, while serpents are not."

"And he was using shed skin – which was symbolically abandoned. If your mother's blood wards..." Flora began when Hermione interrupted her. "Voldemort was trying to weaken the protections that your mother cast on you. They must still be preventing him from possessing you fully."

There was a moment of silence as everybody considered what to do next, before Ron volunteered, "Well, given the way he messed it up, do you think the potion will actually strengthen the bloodwards if Harry drinks it?"

"Ron," Hermione sighed in exasperation, "You don't mess around with an unknown potion. Who knows what it would do to Harry!"

"I guess," Ron nodded sulkily. Hermione hadn't needed to imply that he was going to endanger his best mate's life. He just wanted to keep Harry safe. "So what next? How do we keep Harry being Harry?"

Before either of the girls could reply, Ron perked up "I know. We don't know if Harry has the Horcrux on him, but we don't know that he doesn't. I'm going to go get a set of my clothes for Harry to change into – we know those are safe."

Harry nodded weakly, "Just make sure they're all clean." He sat down on a stone ridge as Ron flew back up the tunnel. This whole experience was so hallucinogenic that the idea of wearing Ron's clothing, down to his boxers, didn't even register as strange.

Hermione sat down next to him and awkwardly put an arm on his back for a moment. After a moment, Flora sat down on his other side, a few inches away. Nobody looked at anybody else.

Suddenly, Flora blurted, "I'm sorry for spending time with not-Harry." She had cheated on – had betrayed - Harry, and it was starting to make a knot in her stomach.

Harry nodded, not certain where she was going with that. "It's ok. I know you didn't do it on purpose." How do you respond to the fact that you have an alternate personality that is the epitome of evil? 'Hi, I'm Harry. Don't mind me, but I'm probably going to murder your puppy in the middle of the night.' It was the most absurd thing that had ever happened to him, and his life was one crazy thing after another. He hunched in on himself, not daring to touch the two girls out of fear. Fear of what, he wasn't certain.

Hermione took a deep breath, 'Harry is the victim here. I can be mature about this.' "So this is where you fought the basilisk?" She had never been down here before. It was a vast natural chamber filled with sheets of shed snake skin. It looked vaguely like a mausoleum.

Just visible past a ruined wall was the dread monster's skeleton, draped tent-like in the desiccated skin. Hermione gave a shudder at envisioning something like that stalking her Harry.

"Yeah, I was lucky that Fawkes came to my aid – he pecked out its eyes before it could get me."

"I never heard the the complete story," Flora asked tentatively. She had spent half a year practically alone. Now, sitting and chatting with friends.. was strange. Nice, but weird. It would definitely take a little while to adjust to having people around who didn't automatically despise the real her. She could be Flora again. She stared down at the floor. 'Wait - is Hermione a friend?' Flora glanced up at the other girl, who was examining the room. She wasn't sure - despite the fact that the other girl was dating her Harry, she couldn't bring herself to hate her – Hermione had always been so nice to her.

On the other hand, it would be better if she wasn't here.

"There's not much to tell," Harry replied self-consciously, interrupting Flora's incipient internal turmoil.

Hermione snorted, "Only you, Harry." She turned back to the other girl, "The short take is that Harry raced down here during our second year to save Ginny Weasley from being killed by a Horcrux..." She stalled out momentarily as ice settled into her heart at that word. "And he ended up having to fight off a giant basilisk that had been living under Hogwarts for hundreds of years. Which he slew!" She pronounced proudly.

"I just did what needed to be done," Harry muttered, blushing.

"You always do," Flora's response earned her a glare from Hermione.

/\/\MLC/\/\

Ron returned, oblivious to the tense atmosphere. "Here – freshly scourgified!" He handed Harry a set of clothes, including robes and underwear.

"Um, can you guys turn around?" Harry blushed.

"Ok, but Ron needs to watch you, to make sure that you don't accidentally forget anything." Hermione had an image of Voldemort taking just enough control to make Harry overlook something.

"Maybe we should all keep watch," Flora countered. It was improper, but this could save Harry's life. It was no different than when she was working with Madame Pomfry in the infirmary…

"No, we're going to let Ron take care of this!" Hermione physically spun the other girl around, and stood next to her, so she couldn't sneak a peek 'Is she that shameless?' She watched Fora out of the corner of her eye, 'no, she's just socially inept. How has she survived in Slytherin up to now?'

After a few minutes, Ron called out "Ok, we're all done.

Hermione rushed over to inspect all of Harry's cast-off clothing. "I don't feel any animosity coming from any of this, but we should leave all of this locked up down here for tonight just in case."

Ron nodded ambivalently. He had handled the locket Horcrux for a few moments back two summers ago, and it hadn't seemed like anything special, at least not that he remembered. "And we can stay with Harry for the rest of the day, to make sure that Voldemort doesn't guide him to a Horcrux hidden somewhere in Hogwarts," he added. "We can go down to the lake – there's not anywhere to hide stuff out there."

Hermione nodded, "But what if that doesn't work?"

"Step-mother has trouble sleeping. She always has some sleeping potions. We can use one of those to knock Harry out."

"Does she have any Drought of Living Death? That would be best."

"I'll go check."

"Wait, how are you going to sneak out of Hogwarts during the middle of the day?" Harry asked.

"I can apparate off of your broom."

Harry blanched. "I talked to my apparition instructor from last year about stuff like that – he said that your almost guaranteed to get splinched if you apparate out of a moving vehicle."

"Could we lure Snape out of the Headmaster's office somehow, long enough for Flora to use the flue?" Ron asked.

"That's risky, very risky," Hermione shook her head. "You have to announce where you want to go out loud, so Snape can't be anywhere in earshot, and I haven't seen him ever leave his office except for meal times."

"And even if we can get him out of the office, he's going to have changed the password for the Gargoyle."

"Maybe you are worrying needlessly, and nothing will happen tonight, because all of you watching me will suffice." Harry tentatively ventured.

"Or maybe it won't." Hermione replied, "Moody always says hope for the best, plan for the worst."

Harry ruminated for a moment before turning to Flora, "I'm going to loan you my invisibility cloak." Harry paused, turning to Ron. "You know where I keep it, in the bottom of my chest?" At Ron's nod, Harry continued, "Meet us by the lake. Flora can use the cloak to sneak out to the Whomping Willow, and then get out to the Shrieking Shack. It's the only secret way out of Hogwarts that I know of."

"Are you certain you want to let her do that Harry?" Ron asked, "I'm not talking about borrowing your cloak, but the Whomping Willow is mean." And Flora might be a Slytherin, but she was also a very petite girl, and Ron had had chivalry drilled deep into his psyche by his mother.

"She's a talented duelist – she will have no trouble hitting the knot."

"But she doesn't know where it is" Hermione contradicted. "I'm going to have to go with her." She glanced at the other girl. Flora nodded in agreement.

"OK, let's do this." Moments later the teens scattered, flying back out of the Chamber and going to their separate tasks (Harry and the girls to wait anxiously by the lake while Ron ran to the dorms)

/\/\MLC/\/\

An hour later, Hermione and Flora left the two boys siting by the lake, looking for all the world like they were just taking a stroll. "Over this way, the tree cover gets pretty thick over here." Flora led the way through the pines – she had spent enough time out here to know the route least traveled. As soon as they were out of sight, Hermione pulled out Harry's cloak and draped it over the two of them with a quick toss.

"Is it covering all of us?" Hermione asked, shuffling awkwardly to stand closer to Flora.

"Yes. Don't worry – the cloak was big enough for both Harry and me," Flora mentioned. Though Harry had been standing a lot closer, so it wasn't really relevant – she had just said it to needle the other girl.

"Ok, hold on to your end and lets go." They walked in lock step towards the Whomping Willow. 'I'm not going to ask about when she was with Harry under his cloak. Not right now.' Hermione resolved to stay focused on the task at hand. "The cloak… Harry.."

Flora gave her a quick sideways glance, "Last year, after Dumbledore's funeral. I couldn't bear to deal with any of the well-wishers or other idiots. Harry walked me home."

Hermione didn't reply, and they walked in silence until she stopped them just outside of whomping distance, "Disillusion yourself, and I'll freeze the tree."

Flora nodded and cast the spell. Just as she was about to dart out from under the cloak, Hermione took her arm, "We should talk about Harry at some point."

"Are you planing to stop dating him?"

"No, but.." Hermione replied.

"Then there is nothing to talk about." Flora wrenched her arm loose and ran for the tree.

/\/\MLC/\/\

By the time Flora reached the Shrieking shack and apparated home, it was almost noon. She carefully unlocked her apartment building's lobby door and headed up the stairs to the 6th floor. It was a muggle building, so it had an elevator, but she didn't want to risk it – in such close confines there was no way that her Disillusion spell would hold up. In full daylight, it would only work if she kept still or the other person wasn't really paying attention.

Once she reached her apartment, she listened for several minutes at the door, working up her courage. 'There's nobody home'. Or Step mother was taking a siesta. Flora finally unlocked the door and slid inside, pulling it shut immediately.

She breathed a sigh of relief - the apartment was indeed empty.

Flora quickly made her way over the scattered clothes to her step mother's room and opened the well stocked medicine cabinet. There were rows of little vials standing all along the shelves, as well as two large ones of headache relief potion jammed in back. Flora went through them quickly. She didn't recognize most of the names, but there were two bottles of sleeping potion – a regular strength sleeping potion as well a little vial of Wormwood potion. If she remembered correctly, that was like the Drought of Living Death but only lasted for the one night. Flora grabbed both. She carefully arranged the medicine cabinet back to the way that she had found it before going to the room that she used to share with Hestia.

She paused as a sense of melancholy hit her. The room had a spartan feel, with only basic furniture and blank walls. It looked more like a guest room than someplace two girls had lived for almost 17 years. 'I should never have come back over the summer'. This wasn't home. She had known that it would be pointless, but step-mother had hammered obedience so deeply into her that she had come crawling back despite knowing what awaited her.

The room had little in the way of personal effects, but Flora went to the bureau and pulled open the top drawer, digging in the back until she had Hestia's favorite hair clip. She then reached under the bed and pulled out a small photo album that the two girls had collected from their time in Hogwarts. She slipped those two items into her robes. 'That's all the stuff from my childhood that I want to keep.' She shook her head in sadness.

She was just turning to leave when she heard the front door opening.

Flora's heart started to hammer so loudly that she was certain that she would pass out as she froze by the bed. For a moment she considered crawling underneath, but that would make too much noise. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She was still disillusioned, and she could hear Step-mother slamming around in the kitchen. 'She's making breakfast.' Step-mother never ate before noon, and she typically had some french pastry. 'Once she is done, she will either go out for the afternoon or go into her room. I can sneak out then.' The apartment didn't have a separate room for the kitchen – it blended into the dining room area, which ran into the living room. If Flora tried to leave now, Alexandra would see the front door opening at the very least.

Flora glanced at the clock on her nightstand. 12:30.

Gentle noises continued from outside Flora's room. At one point Alexandra walked by, and Flora couldn't breath until she had passed. But she didn't come into her room, instead walking back to the living room area.

1:30

Flora could just hear step-mother muttering something to herself as she paced. Flora shifted from foot to foot to keep from stiffening up. She looked longingly at the bed, but she didn't dare sit down – the bed would creak.

Flora glanced at the clock again. 2:30. 'I'm a coward.' A deep self loathing welled up from inside her, 'How long will I hide in my room when Harry needs me?' Pushing all her thoughts aside, she gently shuffled forward until she could push her door open enough to peer out.

Alexandra was standing in front of the full length mirror, a script in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other as she recited her lines.

"Who's there?" Alexandra began to turn as she noticed the door moving.

"Stupefy."

The charm dropped the older woman where she stood. Flora took a moment to collect herself – her Stupefies were powerful enough so that she had at least an hour before Step-mother woke up, and probably more: Alexandra was not particularly strong willed. 'I need to make this look like a robbery.' Flora ran back into her mothers bedroom and scooped up handfuls of cheap jewelry into an emptied pillow case. "Reducto!" She smashed the wardrobe for verisimilitude. She pulled the mattress off the bed frame and used a cutting curse to slash it open. She pulled both paintings off of the wall like she was looking for a hidden safe. The one of the dogs playing poker she dumped on the floor, but the hideous one that was just splashes of paint she smashed.

'That looks good.' She shrank the pillow case and shoved it into her pocket before calmly walking out into the living room. Step mother was still out cold. She listened at the door – nothing. She quickly opened the door and stepped outside. Fortunately, Step-mother had invested in extra strong sound dampening charms on her bedroom, so nobody was likely to have heard the smashing of the furniture.

She calmly strode down to the foyer. A middle aged muggle woman walking her tiny dog shied away when the front door swung open (apparently) on its own, but Flora had jogged down the street to the closest alley before the woman could puzzle out what she had (not) seen.

Flora apparated back the Shrieking Shack in plenty of time.

/\/\MLC/\/\

That evening, right after dinner, the three Gryffindors waited for Flora in the Room of Requirements. "I was worried that it would be occupied, like last year," Harry stated self consciously. He knew that it had to be done, but having his friends watching him all day had been stifling and strangely tiring.

"I guess Malfoy didn't tell the other Slytherins where it was."

"It wouldn't be much of a secret if he did, now would it," quipped Hermione, trying to hide her nervousness.

"What about his two goons?'

"Goyle and Crabbe can barely remember their names, much less the location of the Room of Requirement," Flora pronounced as she entered. "Are we ready?" She glanced around the room. She had fond memories of this place from fifth year, but it was now laid out in a different configuration, with overstuffed chairs circled around a work table on one side, and a pile of blankets stacked up on the other.

Ron snorted, "You know, I think I could get to like her," he commented to Harry as Hermione pulled out a list.

"We have the sleeping potions, in case we need to use them. I took Harry's wand, just in case. Dobby brought up a self heating carafe of coffee, so we can take turns watching Harry."

"You know, people will talk. You're going to be a scarlet woman for being out past curfew" Ron joked, wagging his eyebrows suggestively at Hermione.

"Don't be a prat, Ron. This is important."

"Thank you for going to this length for me, all three of you," Harry interrupted the incipient argument. "In the meantime, I'm going to start on my homework," he pulled his book bag over.

"Epoximise," Harry looked up in surprise as the spell him him.

"That will keep your trousers stuck to the chair," Flora explained, "in case you switch when we aren't paying attention." She was taking the risk more seriously than the other two. On some level, Ron and Hermione still didn't believe that their friend would turn into Voldemort.

"Maybe you should put me in a cage, like Remus."

"We're not putting you in a cage, Harry!" Hermione replied angrily. "Now everybody act naturally. Do homework or whatever."

/\/\MLC/\/\

As the evening turned into night, the teens finished up their work and Ron pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket. "I wonder what Seamus and the guys are doing." Ron sighed. "We should have told them where we are, so they don't worry."

"I'm not certain that telling them would have made them worry any less. Speaking of," Harry turned to Flora, "How about you? Are your housemates going to cause you any trouble over this?"

"I don't care anymore. I can sleep in the the Room of Requirement for the rest of the school year if I need to." Everybody else looked at Flora, at the finality in her voice. She finished her potions paper with an angry jab of her quill and pulled out a book to read without looking up at the others. It wasn't like she had cultivated contacts among her House mates to help her in her career or anything Slytherin like that. She was a pariah, and always had been. The only reason the other girls hadn't bullied her was because she and her sister had looked out for each other, and they had always gotten revenge for any slight. Always.

As eleven o'clock rolled around, Flora went to the far end of the room and curled up on the stack of blankets. "Wake me in a couple of hours and I'll take my turn watching Harry."

"That's not a bad idea," Harry smiled, making a show of stretching. "I should get some sleep too. Can you unstick me for a minute so I can lie down properly?"

Hermione nodded absently, motioning with her wand. The moment Harry was free, he darted to the side, wordlessly summoning Ron's wand from his back pocket.

"Reducto!" He jabbed.

"Protego!" Hermione cast automatically, blocking the spell before it could take Ron's head off. Her training with the DA had made her reactions fast and her instincts good. But she nevertheless hesitated, unable to bring herself to attack Harry back.

"Avada KedavaaaH!" Harry shrieked as a pain curse impacted with his buttocks.

"Stupefy!" Hermione cast as Flora got up from behind Harry.

"Quick, get the sleeping potion!" Flora yelled.

"Which one?" Ron grabbed both, bringing them to Hermione.

She grabbed the Wormwood potion – she didn't want this not-Harry waking up again. The hatred in his eyes when he had looked at her… And the way he had casually tried to murder Ron. She spilled three drops of the potion into Harry's moth as Ron held his mouth open.

With a wave of the wand, Flora caused Harry to reflexively swallow the liquid down. "I am training to be healer," she explained at the other's puzzled looks.

"Incarcerous," Ron cast for good measure.

"So, now we know." Hermione sat down, still in shock.

Flora sat down next to her and took her hand in sympathy. "That wasn't Harry. Harry would never cast those kinds of spells at you." She sounded like she was trying to reassure herself as much as Hermione.

"So what next?"

"We have maybe a half dozen doses of the Wormwood, and it's a little over a week until the hols. We potion Harry every night until we can get him back to the Burrow. We can ask the Order for help then," Ron volunteered.

"Why is there so little of the Wormwood?" Hermione asked nervously.

"They only sell it in small quantities – it's dangerous to take it for too long," Flora explained.

"But we have to keep Harry Potioned!" Hermione sounded desperate.

"He'll be ok." He had to be – they didn't have any other options.

/\/\MLC/\/\

Harry awoke, feeling groggy. He tried to rub at his eyes, but he couldn't move – his hands were tied behind is back.

"Mwah?" he asked, as intelligently as he could.

"Oh, you're awake?" Ron rolled off of his bed and staggered over to the one that Harry was laying on. "Let me get that for you" He gestures with his wand, and the ropes disappeared from around Harry.

"What happened? Did I turn into Voldemort?" Harry asked anxiously

"I'll tell you if you tell me what happened with Flora," Ron asked warily, holding his wand too-casually.

"I'm not talking about that!" Harry blushed crimson.

Ron breathed a sigh of relief, "Yeah, you turned into Voldemort in the middle of the night. We don't know when exactly, but I think you're going to have to take a sleeping potion every night until we get back to the Burrow."

Harry groaned and rubbed his cotton-filled head, "I think I need breakfast. And coffee. I hope I don't feel like this all day - we have an exam this afternoon."

/\/\MLC/\/\

The day passed uneventfully, but as evening approached, both Ron and Hermione started giving Harry wary looks. And when he went to put his arm around Hermione as they walked back to the Gryffindor dorms after dinner, she shied away. "I'm sorry Harry. It's just… Do you mind if we don't, I mean, just in the evening, until we get back to the Burrow," she looked apologetically at Harry.

He swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense." Not that 'making sense' stopped it from being hurtful.

After finishing up his homework, he nodded to Ron ,"I think I should turn in a little early".

As Ron got up to go with him upstairs, Hermione shook her head, "You should sleep in the Room of Requirements again. And I'll keep watch this time."

Harry nodded, smiling bitterly. Under a different circumstances, sleeping in the same room with his girlfriend would have been something to look forward to. They made their way up to the seventh floor. As soon as they were inside, Hermione held out the potion. "Here. Take it quick." Harry could see the fear in her eyes.

He took the three drops and lay down on the bed.

Hermione didn't relax until his breathing evened out and it was clear that he was asleep. She carefully arranged his arm so that it would be more comfortable and pulled the blanket up to his chin.

She then took a seat at the table opposite Harry and pulled out her class notes to revise. Harry had turned into Voldemort by 11pm last night. She would wait until midnight to go to bed, to make sure that he didn't wake up. She hadn't told the others, but she wasn't certain if the sleeping potion affected the body or the mind. If it was the latter, a different personality might not be affected.

When midnight finally rolled around, she cautiously approached Harry's bed and listened. His breathing remained deep and steady. She gave him a slight shake. Nothing. He barely shifted.

With a deep sigh, she retreated back to her own bed, 'I hope he stays asleep for the whole night.' She didn't want to admit it, but she was scared of Harry. The Wormwood potion was supposed to be good that way: As long as you took the correct dose, it didn't matter when you took it - it lasted exactly until morning.

/\/\MLC/\/\

Finally, the hell week was over.

When the Hogwarts Express finally pulled into Kings Cross station, Harry was half asleep – sleeping potions provided for a deep sleep, but not a restful one. He wouldn't be surprised if he had bombed all his exams. On the ride home, he had barely been aware of who was sitting in the compartment with him. As they walked off the train, Hermione and Ron flanked him like a pair of bodyguards, and Flora brought up the rear.

Arthur Weasley had been waiting outside, by the car. When he saw his son and friends, his face lit up, but it shifted from joyful to pensive as he watched them come closer. As soon as they got to the car, he pulled the door open. "Is everything all right?"

"No. Nothing is right anymore," Hermione answered.

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