A/n : sorry this chapter took so long, But I had writers block at the weekend (Grr!) and I've been off school today with a cold so sorry if this chapter is a bit bad 'cause I don't really feel that well at the mo anyway on with the story!
Disclaimer: the start of this chapter (where McGonagall comes in) belongs to fio2 (thanx!) everything else belongs to the fantastic J.K.Rowling except the plot…
"So, what is it?" asked a puzzled Ron.
"Well –." Hermione began, but just then the portrait hole opened and Professor McGonagall came in and walked straight over to them.
"Potter," She said, "You must go to Dumbledore's office immediately, he's got something important to tell you."
Harry turned to Hermione and gave her an apologetic look, then turned to follow Professor McGonagall out of the common room.
Hermione turned to face Ron, "I think you'd better sit down," she said, taking a seat herself. Ron sat down opposite her, still looking puzzled.
"I don't want to tell you this without Harry here, but you need to know."
Ron looked bewildered, "What's wrong?" he said, waiting for her to continue.
"The truth is… Harry and I are…" Hermione took a deep breath, "are in love."
Ron said nothing and stared down at the floor, his ears going red.
"W-we thought it would be better to tell you straight away."
"Oh, and I suppose that makes it alright. Does it?" yelled Ron, jumping to his feet.
"Of course not!" Hermione got to her feet, too, "We just -."
"Just thought you'd make a complete fool out of me, right?"
"No, Ron. Please -."
"Just - leave me alone!"
"But-."
"I said leave me alone!" Ron pushed passed her and walked over to the wall then turned around, "Oh, and I hope you're very happy together!" He sneered, before disappearing through the portrait hole.
(A/n: at first, instead of 'wall' I put portrait hole but it didn't sound very good saying 'portrait hole' twice in the same sentence, anyway it's not important so on with the story!)
***
Harry walked silently up to the stone gargoyle, wondering what could be so important, "Fizzing Whizbees." (This was the new password) The gargoyle jumped aside, revealing a golden staircase that spiralled upwards as far as you could see. Harry hopped onto the steps, which took him up to a polished oak door with a brass door- knocker. He stepped off the moving staircase and knocked nervously on the door.
"Enter," came a muffled voice from the other side of the door. Harry pushed open the great oak doors and walked inside.
"Ah, Harry," said Dumbledore, looking up from his desk, "take a seat."
Harry sat down in the chair opposite Dumbledore
"I wanted to see you, Harry," Dumbledore began, "because I have some important news about Sirius, you see -."
"He's not been caught has he?" Harry blurted out with a sudden worried expression.
"No, no, he's still in hiding," Reassured Dumbledore, "It's rather more serious than that, I'm afraid. He's planning to go after Voldemort himself. I tried to talk him out of it," he continued quickly, seeing Harry open his mouth to protest, "but he feels it's his job to protect you."
"Can't you stop him?"
"Believe me, I have tried numerous times to talk some sense into him, but he's made up his mind and there's nothing we can do, I'm sorry."
Harry was lost for words, first his parents, now his Godfather? He wasn't going to let this happen, he couldn't. There was only one thing for it…
***
Hermione was sitting by the fire, head in her hands, as Harry climbed into the common room. She looked up with teary eyes, she'd obviously been crying. Harry walked over to her and sat down.
"What's up?" He asked. He'd completely forgotten about Ron, as he was so busy thinking about what Dumbledore had told him.
Hermione suddenly looked angry, "What do you mean 'what's up'? I've just told Ron, that's what's up!"
Harry suddenly remembered, "oh…" he said awkwardly, "Sorry, I, er, just- forgot." This certainly wasn't the right response.
"FORGOT?!" yelled Hermione, her cheeks going red, "how could you just forget about something like this?"
Harry looked down at the floor, "It was just something Dumbledore told me, OK," he mumbled, irritably.
"Oh, and what did he tell you that was more important than this?" Hermione glared at Harry with her arms folded.
"It's Sirius, if you must know," Harry said quietly, looking away, "He's going after Voldemort."
There was an awkward silence and Hermione shuffled her feet with embarrassment, "I'm…sorry, I- I didn't know…" she said in a small voice.
"It's OK," Harry sighed, "Anyway, I've made up my mind." He said finally.
"Made up your mind about…what?"
"I can't tell you now, I can't tell anyone but you'll all find out soon." Hermione was sure she saw a tear glint in his bright green eyes as he spoke. Just at that moment, someone climbed through the portrait hole. It was Ron. He looked up and saw them together, his ears tinged with red and he quickly headed for the staircase for the boys' dormitory, "Ron wait I-." Harry stood up and walked over to him.
"What do you want?" Ron said sourly, glaring at him.
"Look, we never meant to hurt you-."
"Hurt me?" Ron laughed in disbelief, "Hurt me? Well, you should have thought of that before, shouldn't you!" Ron pushed Harry hard in the chest and stormed up the stairs. Harry stumbled against the wall and steadied himself. Well, what did he expect? It was no more than he deserved. But everything was a mess, he was about to lose his Godfather (he could hardly defeat the Dark Lord on his own!) and he didn't think he'd be able to cope without Ron. How could he have been so stupid to let this happen? Well, one thing was for certain, he wasn't going to lose anyone else.
"I'm going to bed," he said to Hermione, before quickly running up the stairs and into the boys' dormitory. He looked over at Ron's bed and saw that the hangings were drawn, but Harry knew he was still awake. He quietly crept over to his bed and opened his suitcase, being careful not to make any noise. He pulled out his invisibility cloak and slid it under his pillow. He had a plan…
Later that night, Harry lay awake in his bed, waiting. He glanced at his watch (for about the 50th time) it was a quarter to midnight, 'nearly time,' he thought. Fifteen minutes seemed like a lifetime, but eventually midnight came. Harry slid out of bed and pulled the invisibility cloak out from under his pillow. He wrapped the cloak tightly around himself, making sure he was well covered. This was definitely not the time to get caught. He silently tip- toed towards the door. Suddenly, there was a loud noise from behind him. Harry nearly jumped out of his skin, but it was only Neville, snoring. Harry sighed with relief and continued down the staircase, into the common room. Once he was outside, he started to make his way, as quietly as possible, down the dark, draughty corridors.
Somehow he managed to make it to the library, without seeing any sign of Filch or Mrs Norris. He crept along the library shelves, searching. "U…" he muttered to himself, he suddenly noticed the 'V' section, "damn!" he went back to search for the 'U's but couldn't find what he was looking for. A thought struck him. Of course he couldn't find it here! It would be in the restricted area, why didn't he think of that before! Harry stepped over the rope that cut off the restricted area and started searching through all the letters, whilst muttering quietly to himself, "D…E…F…" he carried on for what must have been hours (the library was quite big, after all) "T…aha!" he suddenly looked around, aware that he had just shouted out 'aha!' quite loudly, but obviously no-one had heard. He turned back round to look at the books again and started searching for a specific book…
After more searching and muttering he finally found what he was looking for. He pulled the dusty, old book out and hid it under his cloak. Satisfied, he stood up, stepped across the dividing rope and headed for the door. His heart sunk, as he heard laughing outside the door and saw a glint of orange. Peeves was outside. He'd obviously heard something and had come along to see what was going on. Forgetting he had the invisibility cloak on, Harry ducked behind some nearby shelves and held his breath, not daring to make a sound. Peeves came floating into the library chuckling something to himself, although Harry was too terrified to hear what it was. Once Peeves had glided past his hiding place, Harry quickly dodged round the corner and hurried back as fast and as quietly as he could. After miles (well, OK maybe not miles, but after a lot of running) Harry finally skidded to a halt in front of the portrait of the fat lady.
"Sherbet lemon" (A/n: sorry, couldn't think of a different password!) Harry said in a loud whisper, in an attempt to wake the fat lady up. It didn't work. Harry kept trying but she obviously didn't want to be woken. In the end Harry had to shout numerous swear words before she paid him any attention.
"Watch your language!" she snapped. She looked around but couldn't see anybody, "And where exactly are you?" she said suspiciously.
"Look, that's not important right now" Harry said hurriedly, "Sherbet Lemon!"
The portrait swung open and Harry climbed inside, glad to be in the warmth. He climbed the stairs to the boys' dormitory and pulled off the invisibility cloak. He climbed into bed, drew the hangings around his bed and opened the library book. He started to read through it but he didn't get very far because his eyelids felt like lead and he couldn't stop yawning. He wrapped the book up in his invisibility cloak and packed it deep into his suitcase. He climbed back into bed and fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow…
***
A week later, it was nearly the summer holidays and Harry hardly had time for anything what with… one thing and another. He still hadn't told anyone about what he was planning to do and had spent hours at a time practising certain spells in secret. He knew he would have to tell Hermione what he was up to soon, she was starting to get suspicious.
Ron was still not talking to them, well he had every reason to ignore them, but Harry needed to talk to him before the holidays, or it would probably be too late. He decided he would send Ron an owl before he left, that way he couldn't just ignore it (well, he hoped not). On the last night, Harry thought he'd better take the library book back he had borrowed the week before. He slipped on his invisibility cloak and, with the book hidden under the cloak (along with the rest of him) he crept along the corridors to the library. It took him a while to find where the book should go back, but he found it a lot quicker than last time and he managed to get back to the common room without coming across Peeves, Filch or Mrs Norris (this had to be a record!).
The following morning, everyone was up early, packing and getting ready to leave. Harry had packed the night before, so he got up, dressed and went straight down to the Great Hall for breakfast. When he entered the Great Hall, he found Hermione sitting at the far end. He walked over to her and sat down.
"Er, Hermione?" he said whilst fidgeting with the table- cloth.
"Hmm?" Hermione replied with her mouth full.
"There's something I need to tell you before the holidays."
Hermione swallowed what she was chewing and looked up at Harry's face. He suddenly looked very serious. "What is it?" she asked.
"Well, you know when I said I'd made my mind up about… something? Well the truth is I'm…" He struggled to find the right words, "I'm, er, sort of leaving."
Hermione looked shocked, "leaving?" she said, "But, but when? W- Why? And what do you mean by 'sort of'?"
"Not exactly leaving, I'm going away and I- I might not be back." His voice started to quaver as he finished speaking.
"But why?" Hermione repeated.
"I can't tell you here, we need to go somewhere quiet." Harry stood up and headed for the entrance hall. He turned round, "Hermione?"
Hermione had a dazed look on her face. She realised Harry had spoken and she looked up, "What?" she said.
"Are you coming?"
"Oh. Yeah. Sorry," She stood up and walked over to join Harry. They made their way to the entrance Hall and out into the school Grounds. They stopped and Harry turned to face Hermione.
"If I tell you, do you promise not to try and stop me going?" He said, with a serious expression.
"Harry, just tell me."
"OK, well… I- I…When…" Harry's voice became choked. He took a deep breath and tried to continue, "Look, I'll just get straight to the point. I'm going after Voldemort."
"Harry! You can't! He'll kill you!"
"I have to, he's killed my parents and I'm not going to let him kill Sirius too! Plus, I've escaped him more times than anybody else ever has! I could be lucky again."
"But you don't know that!" Hermione face was beginning to stream with tears.
"Listen, this is something I have to do, don't make this any harder than it already is."
Hermione suddenly flung her arms around him, "Just promise me you'll come back." She said through a choked voice.
"I promise…"
***
(A/n) well there's the second chapter done! Please R&R! (No flames!) Sorry this chapter took so long!!
