Dedication: In loving memory of Kylie, aka Shaniqua Sparkle. Kylie, you're my hero, and this story's for you. I love you.

This is not at all how,

We thought it was supposed to be,

We had so many plans for you,

We had so many dreams,

And now you've gone away,

And left us with memories of your smile,

And nothing we can say,

And nothing we can do,

Can take away the pain,

The pain of losing you.

We can cry with hope,

We can say goodbye with hope,

Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no,

And we can grieve with hope,

Cause we believe with hope,

That there's a place by God's grace,

There's a place where we'll see your face again,

We'll see your face again.

And I have never known,

Anything so hard to understand,

And never have I questioned more,

The wisdom of God's plan

But through the cloud of tears,

I see your father's smile and say well done,

And I imagine you,

Where you wanted most to be

Seeing all your dreams come true,

Cause now you're home,

And now you're free.

~**~

            "I didn't faint," said Draco Malfoy indignantly. "I never faint. Malfoy's don't faint. I've never fainted in my life."

            "Right," said Harry. "You were perfectly conscious as I had to haul you up to the hospital wing, when you didn't move and your eyes were closed."

            "Of course," said Malfoy calmly. "I was just resting my eyes. Now let me out of this bed, I want to…"

            "No," said Harry. "Not until Professor Dumbledore comes in."

            "I don't care about Professor Dumbledore, I don't want him in here, I never fainted and further more, if I don't get out of this bed I'll…"

            "You'll what?" said Harry.

            "Do something that neither you nor I will enjoy very much," finished Draco. "Now let me out…"

            The door opened.

            "Mr Malfoy," said Professor Dumbledore. "May I present to you Lily and James…oh dear. I believe that Mr Malfoy has just lost consciousness again."

            "Oh no he didn't," said Harry cheerfully. "He's just resting his eyes."

~**~

            "James and Lily," said Dumbledore. "I heard that we have a most serious problem on our hands."

            "It was my fault, Professor, sir," said James. "I was talking to Harry, and I walked out the door without really thinking, and that Malfoy boy was sitting right there listening to every word and I couldn't…"

            "Yes, I realise that," said Dumbledore. "That is not the problem. The problem is that we have an unconscious boy in the hospital who could bring to ruin the world as we know it."

            "But Professor, one boy…"

            "Whose father is a Death eater," said Dumbledore, "and is well known to Lord Voldemort. The question is, do we trust him with this secret, or put a memory charm on him?"

            "Memory charm," said Lily with finality.

            "What would be the point of trusting him?" asked James.

            "There are several very good points," said Dumbledore. "Because, if we made him feel important, and trained him as well, he would keep it. And it would be one more powerful wizard for our side. And, if I am not very much mistaken, he and Harry have formed some sort of bond when they were forced together for three days, and he would not be as adverse to this suggestion as he would usually be. Finally, he would be one less Death eater to contend with."

            "What makes you think he would keep a secret as large as this one?" asked James.

            "Mr Malfoy is as honest as his father is not," said Dumbledore. "If you made him promise, he would not lie to you."

            "He's a Slytherin," said Lily sceptically.

            "But an exceptional one," said Dumbledore.

            "Alright," said James. "So we tell him."

            "Good." Said Dumbledore. "There's one more thing before you go down and meet Draco." He suddenly looked very sober.

            "What," said Lily.

            "I have to tell you, Ms Grangers parents died today. They were attacked by Lord Voldemort."

~**~

            Hermione knew that she probably shouldn't have been listening at the door. In fact, she was quite sure she should not be listening at the door. After all, listening at the doors was very ill mannered and not at all like model students were supposed to behave. But she was quite curious about Draco's fate, and she figured that Ron and Harry had corrupted her enough to give her a valid excuse.

"But Professor, one boy…"

            Bugger. She had gotten there too late. Well, she could still hear most of it.

            "Whose father is a Death eater," said Dumbledore, "and is well known to Lord Voldemort. The question is, do we trust him with this secret, or put a memory charm on him?"

            Memory charm, thought Hermione.

            "Memory charm," said Lily with finality.

            Well there's a coincidence.

            "What would be the point of trusting him?" asked James.

            "There are several very good points," said Dumbledore. "Because, if we made him feel important, and trained him as well, he would keep it. And it would be one more powerful wizard for our side. And, if I am not very much mistaken, he and Harry have formed some sort of bond when they were forced together for three days, and he would not be as adverse to this suggestion as he would usually be. Finally, he would be one less Death eater to contend with."

            "What makes you think he would keep a secret as large as this one?" asked James.

            "Mr Malfoy is as honest as his father is not," said Dumbledore. "If you made him promise, he would not lie to you."

            Malfoy doesn't lie? What? Thought Hermione. What about the whole Rita Skeeter thing? Unless Malfoy got all his little minions of doom to do the lying for him. That would make sense. He is a Slytherin, after all.

           

            "He's a Slytherin," said Lily sceptically.

            Hah. Lily and I are going two for two in the thought processes today.

            "But an exceptional one," said Dumbledore.

            Exceptional? And I'm Queen Elizabeth.

            "Alright," said James. "So we tell him."

            "Good." Said Dumbledore. "There's one more thing before you go down and meet Draco."

"What," said Lily.

            "I have to tell you, Ms Grangers parents died today. They were attacked by Lord Voldemort."

WHAT? Whatever Hermione had expected to hear, it wasn't that. It took about five seconds for what she heard to sink in. The shuffling noise of chairs brought her back to her senses. She ran.

Her thoughts were incoherent and tripping over themselves. If my life were a book, she thought bemusedly, I'd be running to some cheesy spot that I had played in when I was a little girl. Or straight into the arms of some romantic hero waiting to comfort me. She rushed past several people, knocked into Professor McGonagall, sent Professor Flitwick sprawling, and kept right on going. The people in books have it good. I knew I shouldn't have been listening at the door… Hermione didn't realise quite how stupid she sounded, nor would she have noticed if she said these things out loud. All she knew was she had to think of enough stupid things to keep her from thinking things that were turning her world upside down. 

She didn't know where she was going, or how she would get there. All that she knew was that if she didn't get out of Hogwarts she would be violently sick.

~**~

            "You're just going to allow Malfoy to join us?" asked Harry incredulously. "Just completely let him join us. May I remind you that his father was one of the Death eaters that joined Voldemort when he rose again? Remember that? I know that this is just a small detail, but what if Malfoy lets it slip that you are here and Voldemort kills you now? What will happen then? Voldemort won't need to rise again because you will already be dead and he'll have taken over the world!"

            "Harry, calm down," said James. "We just thought that…"

            "I'm not listening to this rubbish," said Harry. "You trust Malfoy with this secret, but not Ron of all people…"

            "Harry listen…" started Lily.

            "Bugger to that," said Harry. He walked out the door. And ran right into Hermione.

~**~

            "Hermione, what is it?" Harry grabbed her arm. She tried to yank it out of his reach, sobbing, "Let me go." Harry's fingers closed around her wrists with a bruising force Hermione hadn't thought possible from him.

            "Tell me," he said urgently. The pain from her wrists cleared her head slightly.

            "You don't know yet, Harry?" she whispered savagely. "I thought the whole world would by now."

            "Know what?" said Harry. "Hermione, know what? Tell me."

            "It's my parents. They're…it's quite simple, really. It happens to everybody I suppose, but it couldn't happen to Mum and Dad, they're muggles and…" Harry shook her gently. She stopped babbling and choked the words out. "They're dead, Harry. They're dead."

            She tore herself away from him, and ran again, fighting hysteria, not knowing where she was at the moment or where she was going, just knowing that she had to go somewhere, or else go mad.

~**~

            "Oh bugger," Harry whispered. He raced after her, lacking her frantic energy, but making up for it in determination. He followed Hermione out the doors and across the grounds, slogging through the deep snow and muttering obstinacies under his breath. Hermione was ahead of him, her hair white with the falling snow, which was lying out behind her like a grisly surrender flag. It was then that Harry realised where she was going.

            "Oh God…" he muttered, trying to move faster, but finding it impossible. Hermione continued to run, heading straight for the lake. She reached the water's edge and collapsed. Harry caught her up, and sat down next to her, panting. Hermione was sitting curled in a ball, her chin on her knees, apparently not able to run anymore. Harry was privately thankful for that; he wasn't sure if he could, either.

            "Are you alright?" He asked. Not exactly eloquent, perhaps, and he could just hear what Malfoy would say about it later, but at the moment, it really didn't seem to matter. Hermione made a small snuffling noise that could have been crying. Harry reached out an awkward hand to her back, thought the better of it, and withdrew. Hermione looked up. She was no longer hysterical, but she had the odd, dazed, look  of someone who had had a nightmare, and woke up to find it true.

            "This is all my fault," said Harry, putting his head in his hands.

            "What's the point?" asked Hermione drearily. "He's going to kill everybody, isn't he? He's going to go along, and just keep killing, until he gets to you. Cedric, Cho, now my parents." She looked down again.

            "Who's next?" she began to cry a little. "Sirius? Remus? Ron? Me? You? It's all a big game to him Spin the wheel of death, see what will make Harry Potter crack! The winner gets…world domination! It's like a television show." The crying became wracking sobs, making her shake.

            "No, Hermione," started Harry, but she cut him off.

            "My mother and father are dead, Harry," she said flatly. "Voldemort killed them. And he'll never stop until he gets to you. Until you join him, or he kills you. What's the point? Why bother fighting? The ending will always be the same. Death and destruction, death and destruction, it's a vicious cycle. So what is there to be gained by refusing him?"

            "What is there to be gained by refusing the most evil wizard who ever lived?" said Harry, quoting Sirius gently. "Only innocent lives, Hermione."

            "Well all this training didn't seem to help my parents much, did it?" retorted Hermione bitterly. "And no, I don't want to be hugged, so don't even try."

            Bugger.

            "I'm really sorry, Hermione," he muttered, looking at his feet. "This is all my fault and I…I'm so sorry."

            "An exaggerated sense of responsibility means an extermely large ego," said Hermione. "It wasn't your fault. So stop trying to make it your fault."

            "When I saw you come down here, I thought that you were going to drown yourself," he said. "You gave me the worst fright of my life."

            "Why would I do anything that insensible?" demanded Hermione. "I'm the only thing that has kept you alive for five years and you know it. And actually…I lied, I wouldn't mind a hug if you don't mind."

            Harry grinned to himself. That suited him just fine. He was glad that she wasn't about to throw herself in the lake and knew that he was being extremely condescending, even though he was trying not to be. If there was one thing that Hermione hated, it was being treated like a child. Well, he knew well enough that she was not a child and…and…and…oh dear…his thoughts were getting dreadfully muddled, and the close proximity between them was not helping matters.

            "Look at me, Hermione," he said firmly. "You are not going to die anytime soon. I won't let Voldemort hurt you anymore than he already did, and he will definitely die if he comes within a radius of two hundred metres from me. I will keep you alive even if it means that the world comes crashing down about our ears and…"

            "Harry, you sound really stupid," she said. "I'm in this to keep you alive and I'd jump in that lake right now if it would keep you safe."

            "My safety doesn't worry me," said Harry lightly. "Not at the moment, anyway."

            "It's that mentality that has kept me awake at night for the past five years," said Hermione, beginning to push away from him, and then thinking the better of it.

            "And it's a good thing, too," said Harry, with a small smile on his face. "Or else the boy who lived would be the boy who's dead."

            "Now there's a catchy title," said Draco.

            Harry and Hermione quickly let go of each other a whipped around.

            "You two don't have very good luck getting each other alone, do you?" He said with a smirk. "Maybe if you weren't so thick-headed as to stand out in the middle of public grounds…but, whatever suits your taste…" he smirked even more. "I, personally, prefer a cosy room complete with a locking doors and several house elves providing drinks…"

"Well, most people prefer snogging an actual person, not the house elves," said Harry with a grin. "Besides, we weren't snogging."

Draco snorted. "Right," he said. "And Voldemort just founded a Save the Starving Armenian Muggle Foundation."

"Well that's lovely," said Harry in mock-cheerfulness. "Let's hope he gets canonized!"  

"You can only get canonized when you're dead, Potter," said Draco.

"Exactly," said Harry. "Now trot along…we're busy."

            "I should think that would be obvious," said Draco with a smirk, as he began to walk away. He turned back again.

            "Oh...Potter. Your…em…parents," he blenched a little, "want to see you. And Hermione as well."

            "Alright then," said Harry. He turned to Hermione. "Do you want to go up?"

            "I'm alright, if that's what you mean," she said with a strained smile.

            "I'm really sorry," he said again. "I know what it's like to not have parents."

            "Yes," she said softly. "But yours came back."

            With that, she began to walk up the hill to the castle, leaving Harry awkward and speechless in the snow.

            "I'll kill him," he said, watching her. "I'm honestly going to kill him."

~**~

            "Hermione, I don't want to be the one to tell you this," said James softly. "But Lord Voldemort…"

            "I already know," said Hermione. "I would appreciate you not telling me again."

            "You do?" said James blankly. "But…"

            "I heard you. I was listening at the door," said Hermione.

            "I'm sorry," said James. "I wouldn't want you to hear it that way."

            "I wouldn't want to hear it at all," said Hermione. "The way I hear it doesn't really matter."

            "I…"

            "I'm tired," said Hermione. "I'm going to bed."

            "Goodnight, Hermione," said James. Hermione didn't answer. She turned and walked out of the classroom.

~**~

            Harry stood outside Hermione's door, debating whether or not to go in. Thinking to himself about how Ron would laugh if he heard how clichéd his internal debate was, strengthened his resolve. He tiptoed in, put a piece of parchment, by her bedside, and tiptoed out again. He grabbed his broom cloak and wand, and carefully opened the window in his dormitory, praying that he wouldn't wake up his father. James gave a snort and rolled over. Feeling that it wouldn't be the brightest thing that he'd ever done to fly out the window, Harry swung one leg out. He pulled the other through the open window, and, sitting on the sill, hopped on to his broom. Feeling extremely foolish, and glad that no body was there to witness the performance, he flew quietly away. What he didn't know was that there was somebody to watch his antics.

            "You'd better hope she follows you fast enough, mate," said Ron, watching Harry fly towards the moon. "Because if she doesn't, this will be the stupidest thing you've ever done."

~**~

A/N: Harry Potter movie was great!