A/N: The problem with romance is that with any given pair (h/h, r/h, g/h) you're only going to please about a third of the readers. I ask you to bear with me now, though. The story is not done. Things may change. Read!





"So you're going to take him to Azkaban now?" asked Cho. In spite of all her will, tears began to slide down her face. "

"No. Our master wants to see him." The hooded figure knelt in front of the unconscious Harry and picked him up. When he straightened, his hood fell back. Cho recognized him. It was the brown-haired boy from the lake .. or was it? He looked older now ... most of the hair was gone from his head and his face was deeply lined. One of his hands was gone; in its place was a ghostly silver one.

"What? What does your master want? Is he going to kill him?"

"Eventually." The Death Eater carrying Harry's limp body turned from Cho and began to walk away.

Cho ran after him. "Hey, wait, no! Our deal wasn't to kill him, only to do justice! Cedric .. Cedric wouldn't want him killed."

"Miss, I'm right sorry to tell you this." The black-hooded figure took a hand from Harry's body to lift the sleeve of his left arm. Cho recoiled. On the figure's skin was a pulsing, black tattoo of a skull with a snake coming out of its mouth.

Cho's blood ran cold.

"That's right," Wormtail said. "I'm sorry, but I'm the one who did kill Cedric. So I can't really avenge him. Sorry."

Cho stood, frozen and speechless. The other Death Eaters had gathered up the body of the first man whom Harry had Disarmed, and were gesturing for Wormtail to come.

Cho took a step backwards, her heart icy. The image of Harry's body, limp, in the arms of one of the Death Eaters, burned into her mind.

What have I done? What have I done?

The Death Eaters whispered words to themselves, and Disapparated with a pop!

"No!" Cho screamed, too late. She ran forward, tripping over the hem over her dress, towards the spot where Harry had disappeared. "No! Harry!" she screamed again. But nothing was there. Nothing was left. Only his wand, in her hand.

Cho screamed again. She took off and began to run, all the way down the trailway, tripping over rocks and tearing her skirt on branches. Somehow she knew she had to get to someone. Fast. Harry needed help, more than she could give him.

An hour later Cho stumbled into Hogwarts, her dress torn and her arms scratched. Ignoring the concerned calls of her friends, she ran into the Great Hall. Hermione was sitting there, alone, as Cho had known she would be.

"Hermione!" she gasped, tripping over towards the Gryffindor table in her ruined dress. "Hermione!"

"Cho?" Hermione said in surprise. "What do you need?"

Cho stopped and stared at the brown-haired Muggleborn witch, who was sitting there and talking to her quite politely. Cho had stolen Harry from right under Hermione's nose - it was quite apparent to everyone, except perhaps the two involved, that Hermione was in love with him - and here she was, speaking civilly. Cho knew what she would have done in the opposite situation. SLAP!

"Hermione - it's Harry!" Cho gasped, her eyes beginning to water. "I've killed him, I've - I've failed him!" She collapsed onto the table.

Hermione sprang to her feet. "Cho - where's Harry?" she said, with urgency in her voice. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry Hermione," Cho said, staring up at her in some kind of weird amazement. "I'm so sorry -"

"Never mind about that!" Hermione snapped. "Where -- is -- Harry?"

"I don't know!" Cho panted. "I betrayed him - oh Hermione, I let him get kidnapped - Voldemort has got him!"

Hermione stared at Cho, fear paralyzed in her brown eyes.

"They took him - they Apparated - he was unconscious - I've killed him!" Cho wailed. "All because of this stupid thing about Cedric!"

*



Harry woke slowly and painfully. His head hurt, and blood had run down the side of his face and dried.

He was lying sprawled on the floor of a cell. The walls were made of glowing green bars, forming a box barely tall enough for him to stand. Outside the cell, it was dark, and Harry couldn't see anything.

He sat up slowly and carefully, trying not to move his head much. For some reason, he still had his glasses. He would have thought Voldemort wouldn't have bothered to save his glasses ...

"Hello, Harry Potter."

Harry froze, his heart sliding into his stomach.

"Yes, it's me." Two red eyes suddenly glowed out of the darkness from around his cell. "I haven't seen you in a while." He laughed dryly at his own joke.

Harry gritted and shook his head, trying to make the pain black him out again. It didn't work.

"How are you feeling tonight, Harry? If it makes you feel better I am mad at my Death Eaters too. They weren't supposed to harm you. But no matter, your injuries are not life-threatening. You can still do what I need you to do."

"And what's that?" Harry bit out, hatred coursing through him. He felt for his wand. It wasn't there .. what had they done with it after Cho took it? .. "Whatever it is I won't do it. You know I won't. And the Imperius Curse doesn't work on me."

Voldemort's voice floated out of the pitch darkness, and Harry shivered.

"Ah, but this I am sure you'll want to do."

Harry was silent, his mind racing. What did Voldemort have in mind?

There was an ominous pause.

Then Voldemort chucked, and his body suddenly materialized inside the bars of Harry's cell. He was dressed in black, taller than ever, and his catlike red eyes gleamed out out of a white face. Those white spider-hands Harry remembered so well were holding something on the end of a long chain. Harry squinted. A tiny hourglass. A Time-Turner.

"We're going back in time, Harry my boy. Fifteen years ago, in fact. To pay a visit to some of my old friends .."

*

Hermione stared open-mouthed as Cho spilled the entire story, from meeting the brown-haired boy at the lake to the Death Eater's attack on Harry. ".. And he's gone, the man said he was going to kill him, and it's all my fault!" she finished with a sob.

Hermione was frozen for a moment. The impulse to lunge out and choke Cho was strong, but as much as she wanted to, it wouldn't help Harry.

"We need to tell Dumbledore," she said in a low voice.

Cho nodded, grateful to Hermione, feeling gladness with a rush that Hermione had automatically shifted the burden of responsibility to her own shoulders.

"Come on," Hermione said, and she helped Cho up and together they started for Dumbledore's office.

"Hermione - what's going on?" Ron suddenly appeared at her side. "Cho just ran right through the Great Hall like there was a demon after her - is everything all right?"

"Here!" Hermione said, transferring Cho's hands to Ron's shoulders. "Take her -- she'll explain -- I've got to get to Dumbledore!"

"Hermione, wait!" she heard Ron yell after her as she tore out of the room and dashed up the corridors to Dumbledore's office.

She came to a stop, panting, in front of the gargoyle that Harry had told them about that led to Dumbledore's office. There was a password - what had Harry said it was? Some kind of candy? -- "Cockroach Clusters!" she yelled at the gargoyle. It sprang to life and moved aside.

Suddenly, the door opened before her. She jumped aside.

Dumbledore himself stood before her, an urgent look on his face. "It's Harry."

"How did you know?" she whispered, suddenly feeling faint.

"Come on," Dumbledore said briskly, and he took her arm and turned into his office. An elevator led upwards. Hermione followed the Headmaster onto it, her panic subsiding once she knew that Dumbledore was helping.

His office was full of witches and wizard portraits, all of whom were looking extremely grave. Dumbledore swept over to his desk and pulled out his wand. Tapping it three times on one of the cabinet doors, he reached in and pulled out a small bowl with runes carved into the side.

"Hermione," he said gravely, "I think it's time you needed the whole story."

"What whole story?"

Dumbledore bent low over the bowl, whispered something into it, and a silvery substance appeared in it quite suddenly. It was something fluid and bright like molten silver, and caught Hermione's attention like a spider spinning a web.

The headmaster placed his wand to his head, pulled out a silvery thread of the same color of his hair, and added it to the bowl. And another, and another.

"What is it?" Hermione whispered.

"A Pensieve," Dumbledore said, then held his fingers to his lips. "Watch, Hermione."

He bent low and whispered another spell to the Pensieve, and then, quite suddenly, a silvery shape rose out of the bowl and twisted, forming itself into human shape.

Hermione gasped. The girl with long hair and large, fluid eyes looked exactly like the pictures Harry had once shown her of his mother.

Lily Potter beckoned, and Hermione leaned closer. The girl in the bowl reached out with a wispy silver wand and pulled Hermione headfirst into the depths of the bowl.



A/N: Please, please please please review! I live on reviews; they make me write the next part faster. ;) Cya!