Harry and Draco flew on until mid-afternoon when hunger finally made them set down for an early dinner or late lunch, depending on your perspective. They tore through two sandwiches each in no time, surprising themselves at their appetites.

"So Draco, how much further do you think we have?"

"I figure that at our present rate, we'll get there sometime early tomorrow afternoon, assuming we sleep about six hours or so."

"That's not as bad as I figured. It's too bad we can't apparate yet, huh Draco?"

"No kidding. We'd have already been there and back by now. Oh well. If you want to wait until next year…."

"No way. We've come this far and I am going to help you finish this now. Not later. Pass me that bottle of juice, please." Draco handed him the bottle and wrapped himself a bit tighter. "You do know, Draco, that if your family didn't live so far out in the sticks, we'd have been there already?"

"Har har. You aren't calling my family hicks are you?"

"Not really." this got a Harry handful of snow tossed at him. "I'm kidding."

"Harry, do you think we should stay in an inn, or out in the fields?"

"I'd like to say an inn, but if it is as dangerous for us as you seem to think, and I feel, we might be best to take shelter in a barn or something. Anything completely outside is out of the question. We'd die of exposure for sure. So I vote for a stable or something."

"I agree. We'll set down at sunset and try to find a warm inviting 'barn'." Draco shook his when he said barn. "The high and mighty Draco Malfoy, reduced to sleeping with the swine. The horror…" Draco trailed off, obviously enjoying his drama-queen act.

"Well Draco, you could always sleep with some of your father's friends. I'm sure they'd be glad to take us in."

"Nope, horses and pigs it is. They win hands down. Or is it hooves?"

"I don't know, but we should be going. We've only got a few hours of daylight left before it starts to get very, very cold." Harry packed up the rest of their food and they were off again, still heading almost due north. A snow squall forced them down about an hour earlier than they'd planned, but it was honestly getting too cold to fly any further. Even with the heating charms they used the wind was still cutting deep through their robes and all, stealing their body heat and sapping their strength.

"This will put us behind schedule, Harry."

"I know, but it just isn't safe to be up there right now. Come on, let's find a nice and warm barn to sleep in."

"You say barn like it is the Taj Mahal, Harry. It will be a stinky, cow-y, barn."

"But it will be out of the wind and snow. Maybe even warm."

"You do have a point. What about over there?" Draco pointed to an outlying structure.

"That might do. Come on, I'm freezing."

"Lead the way, Harry." The barn was inviting, not too smelly, and with a hay loft above the animals.

"We'll stay up there," Harry said, pointing to the loft. They climbed the ladder and began settling into the hay. The two boys ate a quick meal and retired. In lieu of a fire, which might attract more attention than they wanted, they used the warmth charms and snuggled close to share body heat.

"Now don't get any ideas, Potter. You saw almost everything earlier, so just keep your hands to yourself."

"I'm taken, Draco, so don't get your hopes up." Harry and Draco laughed themselves to sleep, closer than they'd ever thought they'd be at the beginning of the year.

While they were flying north, Hermione explained what they would all do while the boys were gone. They'd all go down to the Great Hall together and eat quickly, trying to stay away from the remaining students. If anyone were to question them about the whereabouts of the two, they were in the common room, sleeping off the flu.

Seamus had spent most of the day pacing the room complaining that he didn't get to go with the two. He was over the fact that it was stupid, now he just wanted to be there. Neville had spent most of the day keeping Seamus from tearing the room apart with his hyperactivity. Neville was seriously tired.

Hermione and Dennis were doing their best to keep Colin's mind off the whole deal. They'd played a score of games of Exploding Snap, talked about everything, and as the day wound down they were all losing the effectiveness to distract him.

"I've tried not to worry about him, Hermione, honestly I have. It's just that he and Draco are flying through some of the fighting, and once they're past that, they'll be at Malfoy manor, home of one of the highest ranking Death Eaters there is."

"Colin, I know I've said this many times today, but I'll say it again. Harry is one of the smartest, most resourceful, and lucky people I've ever met. If anything were to go wrong, he is the one person I'd want here by my side."

"That is exactly why I want him here now. Something is going to go wrong. Can't you feel it? Something is out of place here."

"He is right," Ron said. "I've felt it all day. I can't put my finger on it, but it's like a cloud settling over the castle. I feel like I'm so close, but when I try to see what it is, it hides from me."

"I wish I could say I felt it, but really don't. I guess I'm not as perceptive as you guys," Hermione said. "but just have a little faith. He'll be fine."

"I hope so."

"Colin, will you snap out of it?" Dennis asked him. "Worrying about him is about as effective as telling Snape to bathe. It just is pointless." This brought a smile to all of their faces, for the first time all day. "See, isn't that better? I thought so."

"Thanks Dennis. I guess it is pointless to sit here and worry."

"Correctamundo. Now, have you written to Mum and Dad yet?"

"Not yet. I'm still trying to figure out how to tell them that I have a boyfriend."

"Oh jeez, you mean you've not told them yet? Oh man," Dennis ran a hand through his hair and looked at the ceiling.

"You are going to tell them, aren't you Colin?" Hermione asked.

"He has to, if he wants Harry to come and stay for a while with him," Dennis said.

"Not really, Harry stays at Ron's during the summer and--"

"Hermione, I think that staying at our house would be a little different than staying at Ron's, since Harry is dating my brother and all."

"I do see your point. That is a little different."

"I just don't know how to do it," Colin said, in a voice like a whisper.

"I know, how about this," Hermione said, "Dear Mum and Dad, there is a very strange bug going around school this year. Everyone boy who catches it becomes gay. I caught it. Love Colin. PS, I'm dating Harry Potter." they all cracked up laughing.

"Somehow I don't think that would work, Hermione," Dennis said between laughs. "It sure would be funny though."

"Seriously Colin, just say it. From what I know of them, they will take it just fine."

"Yeah, she's right, Colin. Heck, Mum probably already knows."

"What!? What do you mean she probably already knows?"

"Think about it. You've been obsessed with him for years now, you've never had a girlfriend, you aren't the most masculine boy in the world, need I go on?"

"So you think she already knows. So do I just have a big fat rainbow sign above me that I can't see?"

"Not a big sign, just a small sign, about the size of a mailbox." Colin grabbed a pillow and whacked Dennis like Barry Bonds.

"Do I hit like a girl, Dennis? No offense, Hermione," he asked while he was laughing.

"No, you don't." Dennis sounded a bit dazed.

"I guess I'll write that letter now." Colin got up and walked up to his room.

"Your folks will take it alright, won't they?" Hermione asked Dennis.

"Oh yeah. Mum is the most open minded person in the world. And dad likely won't care even if Colin told him he was in love with a giant rabid whale." Dennis was starting to laugh as he was finishing that, just about when Colin made it to the top of the steps and around the corner.

"That's good. Now we just have to wait out a few more days like this and Harry will be back and all this will be over." Dennis was now in full blown riot laugh. Hermione was looking very perplexed. "Would you like to share the joke, Dennis?"

He laughed for a good two minutes before he could get himself under control. "Okay, I'll share with you, but you have to promise not to tell until later on. Promise?"

"Sure, sure, now out with it."

"Mum wrote me about two months ago, she was worried about him and she asked me a few questions. Well, one of them, you can probably guess right now, and I told her. I asked her not to be disappointed because he was. She wrote back telling me that she didn't care at all. She was just happy he found someone special."

"Dennis Creevey! You mean she's known all this time and you've yet to tell him! I can't believe that."

"Mum said to not bring up that she knows, that she'd like to let him tell her on his own. But I must admit, it's been fun tormenting him these last two months."

"I ought to whack you one for Colin, you know. That is just, just, I don't know what it is. Wrong?"

"No, funny." They started laughing again.

"You are rotten." Hermione squealed out between fits of laughing.

Night was closing in on the tower fast, and most of the residents were getting tired. Bedtime soon rolled around. Colin finished his letter and sent it out with Thierry, and then he turned in himself, in his own bed for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Everyone was fast asleep by the time Ron rolled out of bed. His eyes were still closed, so it appeared he was sleepwalking. He walked out the door and began his stroll through the hallways. He made his way into an ancient room he'd likely never be able to find if he were awake. "Over there, on the wall," a voice spoke in his head. Ron walked to the wall filled with knives and swords and other tools of war. "on the left," Ron's hand reached out and was moving for a jagged looking knife. "No, lower." Ron's hand settled on a pearl handled knife. "Yes. That's the one." Ron took the knife and stuck it in is robes, accidentally sticking himself in the side with the tip. He felt no pain now, but later he would and see a long but shallow cut and a bit of blood.

"Now bring it to me." Ron made his way out of the labyrinth of hallways he'd been down and made his way to the Astronomy Tower. He stepped outside and started shivering immediately. "You've done great, Ron. Set it over there and you may go rest. You've got a busy few days coming up, you know, and you'll need your strength." Surtain was laughing, a horrible sound, and the sleeping Ron winced. He obediently set the knife in the corner and it disappeared. He hurried out of the Tower, hurried to get back to the common room.

No one had pleasant dreams that night, not a single soul. Morning couldn't come quickly enough.

In the hayloft, in the north of England, Draco and Harry awoke to the sound of a rooster. "I don't know what is worse, Goyle snoring, or that rooster," Draco said as he was wiping eye bogies away.

"You should hear Seamus sometimes. He'd give a jackhammer a run for its money."

"What's a jackhammer?"

"Are you serious?"

"Quite. What's a jackhammer?" Harry explained a jackhammer while they ate a quick breakfast. They took off and continued north. Thankfully, today was a little warmer than yesterday, so the trip wasn't as horrible.

"Harry, we're flying into the disputed area now," Draco called over to him.

"And after that is pretty much Death Eater territory, right?"

"Yep. The Ministry has little influence this far north. We need to be extra careful from here on, Harry. Very careful." Harry nodded and reached to where the stone would have been. Remembering it wasn't there, he smiled and thought of Colin, safe in the Gryffindor Tower, probably still asleep, curled up in the blankets, warm and cozy-- Harry's reverie was interrupted as Draco shoved him violently to one side, nearly de- brooming him, a green bolt sizzling past where he was.

"Harry, I don't know where you were, but you were almost ate it right there."

"I, I was thinking about Colin."

"Well, you need to think about Harry right now, not Colin. And we need to get higher so we aren't quite so visible. Black coats against a white cloud isn't the best camouflage, you know." The two boys climbed a few hundred feet further, into the clouds. "Alright, we're a few hours away now, we need to land close to my home and hide out until dark. That way, we'll not be seen if we can help it."

"Sounds good," Harry called back to him. "Oh, and Draco?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

"No problem." They continued flying in relative silence.

In the Gryffindor Tower, Colin awoke with a start and a yell. He was sitting bone straight in bed, trying to calm down. The stone was glowing brightly and putting off a major amount of heat. Hermione, who was just heading down the steps, heard Colin's cry and was in his room in two shakes.

"Colin, what's wrong?"

"Hermione! Harry is in grave danger. Something very bad was just barely avoided. I don't know what it was, but I felt it, clear as day."

"Are you sure that you weren't dreaming, Colin?" he pulled the stone up and showed it to her.

"This thing went nuts and woke me up. I thought I was on fire." the stone was still glowing softly and Hermione could feel the warmth from a few steps away.

"Whatever that thing is, it seems to have some sort of bond with Harry, doesn't it?" Hermione asked him.

"It would seem so, Hermione. I just wish I knew what was going on."

"Me too, Colin, me too," Hermione said as she sat on the edge of Colin's bed.



In the north of England--

Harry and Draco had set down in a dense patch of trees for lunch, carefully searching the area before breaking out the food. One quieting spell later they started eating.

"You know, Draco, I still find it hard to believe that the Ministry has nearly no presence up here. It just seems wrong."

"They'll tell you they are big up here, but they aren't. There is too much going on in the more populated regions of England, mainly around London, so that is where they focus their attentions. Why else would you think that so many of the supposed Death Eaters, like my father, live way out here?"

"If I were in charge of the Ministry, I'd surely concentrate more of my forces in the outlying regions."

"Well, since the Ministry is staffed and run by idiots, and probably more than one spy, they've got London covered, while leaving the rest alone." Draco shook his head in a disbelieving motion.

"Spies in the Ministry? Are you serious, Draco?"

"Of course. Do you know how much You-Know-Who could offer a lowly Ministry worker? At least triple what they make in a year. All they have to do is do a little bit of misdirection. It would be that simple. Tell me you aren't that naïve, Harry."

"I'd never really thought of it, but I guess you're right."

"Sorry to shatter your illusions, Harry, but the world is not as pretty and cut-and-dried as you might think."

"We better be going Draco. We need to cover these last few hours before dark falls."

"I know. Let's go." They covered the last hundred miles or so before dark fell, and they found a sort of secluded place to bed down until midnight or so.

"Once we get back, I will never, ever, ever, step foot in a barn again," Draco said, still a bit miffed about sleeping with animals.

"You've roomed with Crabbe and Goyle for all this time, you know," Harry reminded him.

"They are different. I'm not sure how, but they are."

"I'll take you word for it. Now, since we have a while to kill, why don't you tell me what we might be up against in there."

"Well, honestly, I'm not all that sure. The typical wards on the doors, which I can bypass with ease, probably a few more set up since I left in the house. Now, in the east wing, where I'm betting our jackpot is, I have no clue. I've hardly set foot one in the wing."

"Wonderful."

"Last chance to back out, Harry."

"Nope. Not a chance."

"I hoped you'd say that. Let's get a few hours rest before go time. What do you say?"

"I agree." Harry rolled over on his side and was asleep in a minute.

"Harry, I bet you sleep through jackhammers, don't you?" Draco asked Harry's sleeping form. He was up for a while longer, trying to remember every little thing that they'd encounter in the house, as well as try to anticipate anything that might be there.

Ron awoke around the time that Harry and Draco stopped for lunch. He awoke to a terrible ache in his side. He stuck a hand in his shirt and pulled back four fingers covered in blood. "What the hell is going on here?" he pulled his shirt up and saw a cut about three inches long on his stomach. "Great. Now I'm cutting myself in my sleep. Wonderful. I'd better clean this up before everyone else sees this."