A.N. Thank you to everyone who reviewed!!! I would also like to announce, for those of you who haven't noticed, I have uploaded an ALTERNATE VERSION of Harry Potter and the Dueling Master. Even if you haven't read the original HPDM, you can still read the new story and understand it completely. Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy this chapter! *evil cackle *

Malena

P.S. Not next week, but the week after that I will be going on Spring Break. So there will most likely not be any chapters of Dimelo or HPDM-AV, for that week. I'll try and post again before then, but my schoolwork has me swamped!

The next day after breakfast Harry and Ron came into the boy's dorm room and found Neville crying. He was curled up on his bed, shaking and sobbing.

"Neville?" Harry said. "What's wrong?"

"It's He-Hermione."

Harry's blood ran cold.

"What about her?" Ron asked slowly.

"I just heard that she died."

The color drained from Harry's face. Ron stood shocked beside him.

"B-b-but Madame Pomfrey said she was going to be okay!" Ron said. "Harry -where are you going!"
Harry had already bolted from the room.

~*~

He didn't know why he was running. He just needed to know. Needed to be sure. He ran through the halls, earning himself several odd looks from other students. He ran by Professor McGonnagal who shouted after him, "NO RUNNING IN THE HALLS! 10 POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR!"

Harry didn't listen and he didn't care anyway. He just had to know…

He didn't stop running until he reached the Hospital Wing. He pounded on the doors.

Madame Pomfrey opened the door a moment later, looking quite annoyed. "What on earth are you trying to do! Break down the door!"

"Is it true?" Harry gasped.

"Is what true?"

"I heard from Neville that Hermione had died. Is it true?" Harry asked desperately.

"No! Of course it's not true! Miss Granger will be fine! Don't worry, she's in good hands." Harry stood there, panting. He was so relieved.

"I suggest that you go to your class, Mr. Potter. Good day. And don't come pounding on my door unless it's a real emergency!"

Harry nodded, still breathing hard, and turned to walk back to the Common Room to get his things.

Ron was sitting on his bed, his head in his hands. He jumped when Harry came running back into the room.

"It's… not… true," Harry gasped, now completely out of breath and barely able to choke out those words.

"What?" Ron asked, standing up.

"It's not true," Harry repeated, collapsing onto his bed. "Hermione's alive."

Ron let out an almighty "WHOO HOO!" and paraded around the room, yelling, "She's alive! She's alive!" Harry gave a light laugh and started putting things into his school bag. He was so relieved that Hermione was alive, and was going to be okay. He had never been more scared in his life…

"Come on," Harry said, flinging his bag over his shoulder. "We'd better get going to class…"

"SHE'S ALIVE! SHE'S ALIVE!"

Harry laughed again and walked out of the room.

~*~

Their first class was Transfiguration. Seamus gave Harry a smile when he walked in, and laughed when Ron bounded in, still shouting, "SHE'S ALIVE!" And got 10 points taken away from him. Ron took a seat beside Harry, just as Professor McGonnogal cleared her throat and began the lesson.

"Welcome back to some of you who are just now joining us," Professor McGonnogal said, her eyes flicking toward Harry and Ron. "We have just been doing reviews for the last few days, waiting until all of you were found. Unfortunately, Miss Granger is in the infirmary and will not be able to join us. Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter, will you be sure to get her homework for today?"

"Er… yeah."

Professor McGonnogal sniffed lightly, and then said, "So, on with the lesson."

All of the people who had been missing were having a particularly hard time of transfiguring a quill into a quail. Harry seemed to be having the most trouble though. The quill just didn't seem to want to turn into anything. Harry shook his wand furiously, almost lighting Ron's robes on fire.

"Shit Harry! What are you doing?!"

"Sorry… my stupid wand isn't working right now…"

"Be more careful, Potter," Professor McGonnogal said, coming up behind them. "Do you need help?"

"No, no that's okay," Harry said quickly. The last thing he needed was teacher help…. Malfoy would never let him live it down.

"Just concentrate Harry," Ron said.

"I am concentrating," Harry said, raising his wand and taking a deep breath. He waved his wand and there was a great POOF and a cloud of smoke. Ron and Harry coughed and waved their hats around, trying to make the smoke go away. When the smoke had gone, Professor McGonnogal came over, looking livid.

"What did you do!?" She demanded. Harry looked down at the desk, and in place of a quill, there was an egg.

"Turning the quill into a quail," Harry said. He held up the egg. "See. A quail egg."

"That's not a quail egg it's a chicken egg, Potter," Professor McGonnogal said.

Harry looked at the egg. "Well, the chicken is a relative of the quail."
"Mr. Potter, you will see me after class," Professor McGonnogal ordered. Harry nodded grimly and turned back to look at Ron.

"Jeez Harry, what's wrong with you today? Did you just forget?"

"It seemed to leak out of my head this summer. I remembered it when I had to do the testing…" Harry moaned, putting his head in his arms. "I was doing everything right… my magic just doesn't want to cooperate. Harry lifted up his wand, flicked it, and accidentally turned his schoolbooks into several large quails.

"Why didn't it work before! It doesn't work on the quill, but now it works on my books!" Harry exclaimed angrily. The quails hopped off the desk, scared by the outburst.

"Oh no, come back!" Harry cried. He scrambled after them.

"Some day Harry's having, eh?" Ron mumbled to Seamus, as Harry went after his quails, and tried to turn them back into books.

~*~

The rest of the day was not one of Harry's best schooldays. During Potions he had almost spilled his cauldron, and when Neville actually did spill the potion, Snape took away 25 points from Gryffindor. He was quite relieved to get to lunch.

"So, what did McGonnogal have to say?" Ron asked, spooning some sort of casserole onto his plate.

"She just asked if I was feeling okay, and if I needed extra help," Harry said glumly. "I told her no, and that I would just look over everything I learned last year. Don't know if it will help…"
"I'm sure it will," Ron said, patting Harry on the back. Then he sarcastically added, "At least we have Divination to look forward too."

"Ha ha ha," Harry said. He wasn't so hungry anymore…

~*~

The Divination classroom was filled with the thick perfume that Harry remembered vividly. It was dim-lit and Harry could barely see to the other side of the small room. The poufs and chairs were placed randomly at rickety tables, and there were little globes of the solar system in the center of each table.

"Come on, table in back," Harry mumbled, motioning to a table that was covered with a particularly gauzy looking silk scarf.

"Welcome back, my children," came a misty voice. Harry jumped and looked around, trying to find out where the voice was coming from. He jumped for a second time when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I knew it, my dear. I knew you would be in great danger this year…" said Professor Trelawney, looking sadly down at Harry. "Great danger…"

"Mmm….right," Harry said, not really paying attention. He plopped down on a pouf and stared at the globe with mock interest.

The rest of the students started to arrive, and Harry was almost forgotten by Professor Trelawney when Lavender and Pavarti came into the room, squealing about a discovery they had made with their tarot cards. However, after all of the students had taken their seats she gave Harry a mournful glance and began to talk.

"For those of you who are just joining us, we have been reviewing the things we learned last year. However, today we will be learning about…" She flipped through the book. "Death Omens."

Harry inwardly groaned. What ever happened to the globes of the solar system? Why couldn't we just stick with that?

"I am aware that all of you all know about the Grim, after Mr. Potter's many predictions…" Professor Trelawny gave him another sad look. "Now we will not only be studying the history of the Grim, but other death omens as well. Will you all please turn to chapter 18 in your book…"

The chapter was filled with gruesome pictures of mutated looking rabbits and other demons and magical creatures.

"The Hyncopratinous is possibly one of the worst things that a wizard or witch could see," Professor Trelawny said. "A giant demon that resembles a giant bull with wings of a dragon, with front claws like a Nundu, the back end of a Runespoor and giant silver teeth that are so poisonous that they are one hundred times more poisonous than a Basalisk. Anyone who comes across one of these demons is probably as good as dead."

The class was scribbling down notes from the book while Professor Trelawny went rambling on. "Luckily no one has seen a Hyncropratinous for hundreds of years… there is nothing to be afraid of. However, many of nowaday death omens have been derived from this demon…"

Dean passed Harry a note. It was a picture that he had just sketched of the Hyncropratinous. It certainly looked frightening.

Thank Merlin they haven't been seen for hundreds of years, said the note at the bottom.

Harry nodded, and handed the picture to Ron.

~*~

Darkness… it was engulfing him again… a swirling, cold, deathlike darkness….

Harry was running, running as fast as he could, trying to get away from the coldness….

"I'm not going back! I can't go back!" Harry cried out. "I won't! I can't!"

He looked behind him as he ran. There were hundreds of them… thousands… tens of thousands. There were too many to count.

"Come back Potter," hissed a familiar voice. "Come back… don't run away…"

"I won't come back! I won't go back!"

"Harry!"

"I Won't! I can't!"

"HARRY!"

Harry jolted awake, shaking and panting as though he had run a long distance.

"Harry? Are you okay?" Ron asked, he was standing over him, looking frightened.

"Wh-What?" Harry panted.

"You were yelling! You scared me half to death!"

"Wassamattar?" Asked Seamus from his bed. "Why're we talking?"
"It's nothing Seamus, go back to bed," Harry said quickly. Seamus muttered something before starting to snore again.

"Are you okay Harry?" Ron asked again.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Harry said, his breathing starting to return to normal. "I'm just going to get a glass of water."

"Oh. Ok. Can I go back to bed now?"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead."

Harry pushed away his sheets and went over to the water pitcher by the window. He poured himself a glass of water and stared out of the window. He nearly choked on the water when he saw what was outside.

It was a giant Bull with razor sharp teeth, the back end of a snake, and giant claws and teeth… It was a Hyncropratinous. And standing right next to the giant demon was Voldemort.