Hermione led them through the empty streets to the Shrieking Shack, which was barely visible through the heavy torrents of rain.  Yet, through the dusty curtains in the windows of the gloomy house, Harry saw what he had come out here for.  A flickering light, most likely candlelight, was lighting up a window within the Shrieking Shack.

      "They are in there guys!" Hermione bellowed.

"Who?" Harry and Ron said in unison.

"Sirius, Lupin and everyone!  Why didn't we think of this before?" She was in a fit of delight.  Harry and Ron were looking shocked.  Why HADN'T they thought of it before?  How many of the people Harry had seen at the meeting were staying in there?  Could Ron's parents be in there?

Ron was probably thinking the same things as Harry, "Well, let's go see them already--"

"Wait," Harry interrupted, "They don't know we know.  It is probably best we don't go see them.  We would probably get in trouble."  He couldn't believe what he was saying.  Who cared if they got in trouble!  He wanted to see his godfather and favorite teacher!  He wanted an explanation from Mrs. Figg herself!  Why was he saying this?

Yet he knew.  What if it wasn't Sirius and the gang in there?  What if is was a group of death eaters?  What if it was Voldemort?  He knew they couldn't risk anything, even if he wanted to see his friends.

"Your right Harry." Hermione admitted, "Maybe we should just wait to see them when Dumbledore is ready to tell us."  She obviously was disappointed, and Ron looked rather peeved.  But they headed back to the Three Broomsticks together, soaked to the bones.  

The students were all assembling in the pub for return to the castle.  Most of them looked disappointed about heading back in the pouring rain, so Professor McGonagall conjured several red umbrellas from her wand.

"Great gnomes!  How did you three get so soaked," Professor McGonagall bellowed surprisingly at Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  She quickly conjured three towels from her wand with a Hogwarts insignia on each, "Warm up.  You should be ashamed of yourselves for standing out in the rain!  Could have caught a cold!  What would Madam Pomfrey have to say to me!?" she reprimanded as she hand them towels and umbrellas.

After they had made it back to Hogwarts, had played a couple of wizard chess games, and were in their dorms getting ready for bed, Harry remembered Cho and Ginny.  Would Cho be upset that he had left so fast?  He hoped not.  Ginny troubled his mind as he closed his curtain and said goodnight to Ron and Neville.  Yet, he was still able to close his eyes and drift to sleep, despite his troubled and confused mind.

Next thing Harry remembered, he was sitting on a rock in the middle of the Forbidden Forest.  He couldn't remember how he got there.   He looked around in bewilderment and saw a luminous white light shining nearby.  It was a unicorn.  She was beautiful; her pelt shone like the full moon.  Harry didn't know what made him get up and follow her when she started running.  He ran faster than he had ever run before.  Then the unicorn had stopped ahead of him.  After he caught up with it, he saw that he was on the shores of the lake.  The unicorn was in the wake of the waves; Harry stared in awe as she changed like a flash.  One second she was a unicorn, and then she had changed into a beautiful girl, wearing a gossamer white dress, as luminous as the pelt of the unicorn, as luminous as the moon.  Harry felt himself go red as her long, fiery red hair blew in the wind.  He looked at her beautiful face, the spray of freckles on her nose; she smiled as Harry walked closer to her.

"I knew you'd come, Harry," she murmured.

"How--" Harry tried to talk but his tongue was tied.   The beautiful girl put two fingers over his lips.

"Don't say a word, Harry," Her brown eyes were staring into Harry's green eyes.  Harry didn't break the eye contact as he removed the delicate fingers from his own lips.  Harry wasn't sure why he had an impulse to do what he did next but it seemed almost imperitive that he do so. He cupped the silky cheeks of the red-haired beauty and touched his lips to hers.  A long passionate kiss followed and only stopped when the girl pulled away.  She looked sad.

"Is something wrong," Harry quarried.

"I love you Harry," Ginny cried.

It was then that Harry woke up and stared into the dark.  He had been dreaming.  There was  a unicorn.  A beautiful girl.  He had kissed her.  Yet, Harry couldn't remember who she was.  Harry pulled the crimson curtain aside and looked at his clock.  It was 3:30 in the morning.  He listened to the loud snores of Neville.  It seemed that everyone else was asleep.  Forgetting quickly about his dream, he went to his trunk and got a piece of parchment and a quill.  He had to go and send a letter to Sirius.  He needed to get Sirius to tell him about the Order of Phoenix so he could talk to him.  Harry grabbed his Marauder's Map and his invisibility cloak and sneaked down to the common room.  There, in the empty common room, he wrote this to Sirius:

Dear Sirius,
It has been since August that I have heard from you.  I understand you are probably busy with whatever Dumbledore sent you to do, but I can't just sit here any longer.  I need to know what is going on.  Nothing odd has happened this year and this really bothers me.  I expected there to be more going on due to Voldemort's return.  Please write back and tell us.  Ron, Hermione, and I need to know to protect ourselves.
Your Godson,
Harry

Harry sneaked out into the halls, despite the Fat Lady's protests and tiptoed quietly, staring at the map and keeping his cloak tightly on.  Harry walked into the Owlery and was welcomed with a loud scream, which Harry quickly answered as he looked up in complete surprise to see Ron standing right in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" Ron berated rather loudly.

"What are you doing here, and keep it down numbskull!  What if we get caught at this hour? Filch would kill us!"

"Oh, sorry," Ron whispered.

      "Erm, well I'm here to deliver a message to Sirius.  What are you here for?" Harry stated.

"Umm, to deliver a message to my parents," Ron declared, as he let Pigwidgeon fly out into the stormy sky.  Harry couldn't help but be suspicious.

"You didn't tell them anything about us knowing, did you?"

"Of course not Harry!  I just asked a few questions.  Did you tell Sirius anything?"

"No, I just asked a few questions too," Harry murmured.  Harry walked over to Hedwig and fastened the letter to her leg as she nipped his pockets looking for scraps.  She seemed rather perturbed as she flew out into the storm.  Just then, a loud cackle was heard just out the door of the Owlery.  Harry looked down at his map and saw Peeves bouncing off the walls.

"Oh no, it's Peeves!  We can't be found in here, Ron!  He's sure to call Filch!" Harry found the cleanest corner and beckoned Ron to come and sit next to him.  He then lay the invisibility cloak over both of them and they sat in silence.

45 minutes passed and Peeves was still right outside the Owlery having the time of his life.  Ron and Harry had talked every once in a while, but had kept it mostly quiet.  Harry was dying to ask Ron the burning question.  Did he fancy Hermione?  He knew the answer, but he needed to hear it from Ron.  He worked up his courage and it burst out, "Ron, I need to know.  Do you like Hermione as more than a friend?"

It was at least ten minutes before Ron sighed, "Yes, Harry.  I do."  Harry had never heard Ron sound so serious.  He couldn't see Ron, but was sure he was blushing. "Well, are you o.k. with this Harry?" Ron sounded embarrassed.

"Oh come now Ron!  It is called infatuation!  It's not bound to last that long!" Harry bellowed. Some he knew how untrue what he was saying was.

"No!  Harry I lo--"

"Look, Peeves is gone!  Hurry we have to go!" Harry interrupted.  They sneaked back into the halls and back into the common room.  They climbed into their beds and fell back to sleep, Harry quite shocked.

The month passed quite fast to Harry.  He kept dreaming about the beautiful girl, but could never remember who she was when he awoke.  Ron and he never even mentioned the night in the Owlery, as if it had never happened.

Schoolwork was getting harder by the day.  O.W.L.S were coming up and teachers were testing the students to see how much better they were getting.  In Transfiguration, Harry was delighted to turn his guinea pig into a full-fledged guinea fowl.  The students had dueling lessons in defense against the dark arts every other lesson.  Each class worked individually though, because it was obvious that they couldn't work with other classes. Professor Fletcher became even more keen with Harry then the other students.

"Your very talented with the Defense against the Dark Arts spells, son.  Where did you get such training?" he complimented Harry very often.

"Oh here and there sir.  Thanks," Harry didn't tell him about Lupin or the Tri-Wizard Tournament.  He felt awfully proud of his skills too and had began to notice it.  

His social life was going downhill though.  He had to blame part of on Cho.  Every time Harry was alone with Hermione, or Ginny, or any girl for that matter, Cho would turn up and act as if she had something important to say.  She would grab his hand and walk down the halls with him jabbering about whatnot.  At first Harry was delighted to be seen hand in hand with the most beautiful girl in the school.  But it got kind of tiring to be interrupted, and every time. Harry wondered why he had never noticed how talkative she was before and if Cedric had gone through the same thing. Soon, he started noticing that all of Cho's jabbering was about herself.  She would constantly asked Harry if he thought she was pretty and talk about how good she was doing in school.  Yet, she never asked Harry any questions about himself.  Harry started wondering if he really did like her.  Maybe he didn't only want a beautiful girl, but one he could talk to also.

      2 weeks before the dance and the big game, Ron, Harry, and George were leaving the locker rooms and snickering as they stared at what was going on the field.  Fred was trying his very best to show off to Angelina, by flying about on his broom and doing magnanimous stunts.  Yet, he managed to slip and almost fall off his broom; Angelina was just chuckling, yet affectionately.

"He couldn't stop talking about her this summer," George chuckled to Harry and  Ron, "I think he fancies her."

"Well, obviously George!" Ron retorted, "How obvious can you get?"  Harry managed to hide his snickers in a cough at these words.  Ron was very obvious about who he fancied.  Well he turned to snicker, he saw the Ravenclaws were coming out on the field to start their practice.  Harry sighed heavily when he noticed Cho was walking briskly towards him.  He certainly didn't want to hear an hour's worth of detail on her new dress robes again.

"Harry look, George chimed into Harry's thoughts, "It's Cho.  My, she is gorgeous Harry; you are lucky."

"Yeah..."  Harry sighed. He stared dumbfounded at George, who had that same misty look in his eyes Ron had gotten outside the prefects bathroom.

"Oh, come on Harry!  She's the hottest girl in the school.  Why have you been so glum about her?" Ron asked.  Ron had been a little jealous of Harry, naturally, but he had hidden it well.  Harry was relieved by this, because Ron had been notorious to not accepting Harry's fame and luck.  Harry was happy to get support from Ron, but he still didn't know how to tell people how his feelings for Cho were plummeting to an ultimate low.

"I dunno Ron... I guess--"

"Harry!  Why didn't you wait for me yesterday in the halls!  I wanted to tell you all about Vanessa's new bracelet.  It's ravishing!  I wish I could have one like that.  It is so pretty, it has blue sapphires and red rubies and..."

Harry, Ron, and George listened politely as Cho talked for another ten minutes about herself and people they had never met.  Harry glanced at Ron and saw a shocked look on his face after the first  five minutes.  Then he glanced at George and almost snorted when he saw the misty trance he appeared to be in.  Finally the Ravenclaw captain called for Cho to come to practice.

"Well, Harry, I guess I better go!  Ta ta sweetie!"  she ran away gracefully, yet Harry wasn't interested in the way her hair flowed with the wind as she caught up with her team.  George sure seemed interested, though.

"Come on Harry," Ron said, "We need to get back to do our Charms homework.  Coming George?"

"No, I think I'll hang around," George was staring at Cho, who was on her broom already in search of the snitch, "Besides, I have to wait for Fred to finish his flirting.

Ron and Harry chuckled as they headed back.  Harry had no problem telling Ron all about his troubles with Cho, now that Ron could understand them.  It felt good to finally get it all out anyway, as they headed towards the castle.

Disclaimer-  The characters, setting, etc. belong to the most talented writer in the world (JK Rowling), yet the plot was developed, with inspiration from the greatest writer in the world, by yours truly ;o)