Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.  Warner Brothers bought me out.

Harry was having one of the worse weekends ever.  Quidditch practices had started up, and Katie Bell was absolutely brutal – far worse than Oliver had ever been.  At 8:00 each night Harry had to go train with McGonagall – although Harry really didn't see how sitting and doing nothing helped out any.  And it most certainly didn't help that his two best friends weren't talking with him.  It was even worse than last year when Ron was mad at him, because at least then he could talk with Hermione.  The only good note was that a lot of the Slytherins were oddly absent most of Sunday.  Harry briefly wondered where they were, but realized that he didn't care.

Finally at dinner on Sunday, Harry decided he should at least try to sit with Ron and Hermione.  As soon as Harry sat down, Ginny glared at him and pointedly moved several meters down the bench.  Not a good sign Harry inwardly remarked.  But although Ron glared at him as well, he stayed where he was, which Harry hoped was a good omen.  Harry looked back and forth between Hermione and Ron, who were both mutely looking at him.  After several seconds of awkward silence, Harry said the first thing that came to mind.

"Hermione, are you still working on S.P.E.W.?"  Harry could've hit himself.  Good job, Harry!  What better topic to talk about to promote solidarity!

Ron simply stared at him incredulously.  Hermione seemed to be startled by the question as well, and cut her answer to, "Er, yes."

After several more seconds of silence, which seemed to stretch into minutes, Harry said, "Well, I think, er, well, I'll see you two later."  He quickly got up and left the hall, still cursing himself for his excellent conversation attempt.  If he had looked back as he left the hall, he would've noticed a look of amusement that flickered across Ron's face, if only for a moment.

Harry looked up from his sitting position on the floor of McGonagall's office.  For the last several days he had been bored silly by basically doing nothing, but every time he was about to speak up, he remembered what McGonagall put him through the last time he broke the silence.

At last, Harry couldn't stand any more and stammered, "Er, Professor?  I understand that I don't need to increase my golem's power.  But are you going to teach me something, at least?"

McGonagall didn't open her eyes and replied, "I have nothing to teach you."

Harry was extremely confused by this.  Not only was McGonagall a professor, meaning that her job was to teach, but he didn't see why he was here if not to learn.  After another few minutes, Harry asked, "If you have nothing to teach me, why am I here?"

McGonagall still didn't open her eyes and softly said, "Stop thinking."

"What?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Stop thinking," McGonagall repeated.

Harry stifled an exasperated sigh and closed his eyes.  Stop thinking, Harry.  Easy, just stop thinking.  Harry thought about not thinking, until he realized that that required thought.  He struggled internally for another few minutes before standing up.  "Professor, I'm going to talk with Dumbledore.  I don't think this is working."

As Harry walked towards the door, McGonagall strictly said, "You are not leaving yet, Potter."  She then continued in a slightly calmer voice, "I can see a more active approach is needed."

"Approach?" Harry asked, bewildered.  Had they been trying to approach something, because the only thing Harry had even come close to reaching was death by boredom.

McGonagall thought for a moment and then said, "From now on, you will be mopping the main entrance hall during this hour."  Harry groaned loudly, and McGonagall primly said, "Perhaps you will not complain next time."

Harry sat in silence until the hour was up, and then left back for the commons.  As soon as he had left the room, McGonagall tossed a fistful of powder into her fireplace and called, "Albus Dumbledore."

The headmaster's head poked out of the flames.  However, his long beard appeared to be burning as well, creating flickering patterns about his face and an acrid smell of burnt hair.  McGonagall was alarmed until she saw the twinkling eyes.

As McGonagall frowned, Dumbledore said, "Interesting new candy from the Weasley twins.  Flaming Follicle Fudge.  Of course, if Argus saw me…"

"Headmaster," McGonagall said, cutting to the chase, "Would it be possible to schedule an event that would befoul the entrance hall each night around 7:30?  It's for Potter."

Dumbledore chuckled and said, "I can ask Severus to reschedule the Slytherin Quidditch practices to end then.  I'm sure he'll agree to the cause."

At this, McGonagall couldn't help but laugh.  Knowing Snape, as soon as he found out Potter would have to clean up his team's mess, he'd most likely order them to get filthy as possible.  Dumbledore finished by saying, "And I will take care that the quidditch pitch is unnaturally wet in the evenings."

McGonagall sat down at her desk as Dumbledore's head retreated from view.  Of course, Snape would tell her that what she was trying to do would be impossible.  But Severus had a slightly skewed impression of Potter's ego…

Fortunately, most of the professors seemed to ease off on the workload on the last week before Halloween and the Hogsmeade weekend, which gave Harry a decent amount of free time for once.  After Potions on Tuesday, Harry figured it was as good of time as any to hand in his summer work.  He slipped into the 5th year guys dormitories and pulled his invisibility cloak off his pile of parchment.  Somehow he had managed to slip through the commons unnoticed with the pile, and set off to the headmaster's office.  When he arrived in front of the stone gargoyle, he took a minute before coming up with the password.  Harry smiled and said, "That's right.  Pepper Imps!"  Sure enough, Dumbledore hadn't changed the password, and the guardian sprung up to admit him into the room.  Harry decided to leave the entire stack to the side of the entrance and trust that Dumbledore would distribute the essays to the appropriate professors.

His task finished, Harry set back out for the Gryffindor commons.  However, before he could arrive at the portrait, he found Hermione pacing back and forth in one of the abandoned corridors.  Intrigued, Harry walked over with a small smile.  "Problem, Hermione?" he asked.

Hermione turned to face him, a dissatisfied grimace on her face.  "I think he found it."

Harry was confused.  "Who found what?"

"You-Know-Who!  I think he found whatever he was looking for," Hermione replied testily.

"But… But there have still been death eater attacks recently," Harry pointed out.

"Yes," Hermione insisted, "but they've backed off in intensity, and none of them have been anywhere near a jewelry store lately!"

"Well, is there anything missing?  If Voldemort found what he was looking for, then there will be something missing." Harry said.

"No," Hermione replied.  "The muggle insurance agencies insist that nothing was taken.  But I'm sure Voldemort would've been smart enough to conjure a non-magical replacement for it – the muggles wouldn't know the difference.  And the ministry isn't about to check every jewel in every muggle store to check on a hunch."

"Hermione, I'm surprised at you," Harry said, smiling.  "After all, you know which store the object was taken from."

"Of course!" Hermione said loudly.  "The last store they hit!  Obviously they wouldn't keep looking after they found it!"

"Still, that's going to be a lot of jewelry to search through," Harry admitted.

"No!" Hermione beamed, "They attacked some stores that didn't have rings.  And they attacked some others that didn't have necklaces or bracelets."

"So," Harry deduced, "we're looking for…"

"A jewel," Hermione finished.

Harry smiled.  "I guess I know what we're doing this weekend…"

---

Well, there's a little bit more about what Voldemort's up to…

Sherman: Yeah, I'm sorry – it's been done before.  I'm not trying to isolate Harry to make him go crazy.  I'm isolating him from Ron so they can have a big fight (I bet you can guess what it will be over…)

Lakergurl13: Well, Harry's not going to go with Lavender or Parvati.  But why would that be so bad?

MicroChick: Yep.  Ron's evil.  Very evil.  Hmmm… you know, I hadn't even considered Malfoy.  I think that Harry and Ron will have enough on their hands, though.  I haven't even gotten to the thick of the whole dance part.

Kaelli Karali: I'm not 'putting together' anyone – no ships, remember?

Katani: hehe, yeah, Ron's kind of nasty when he's ticked off.

Beefywpac: Thanks!

Feel free to review