A/N: Let's make this nice and easy, shall we? Ice Chick1205: I'm sorry I took forever to update, and I'm sorry you had to wait so long to read what happens. I hope these chapters are up to your standards! Aahz: GET SOME SLEEP!!! Haha. Wow, you stayed up all night to read the story? I'm truly honored. Dappy: Yes, hormones. C'mon, I'm writing what I think J.K. will never venture for. I honestly don't think J.K. will write about Ron going through a girl phase, so why can't I?

CONGRATULATIONS SNEEZY MOUSE!!! Sneezy just finished her fic, Deep in the Subconscious of a Prankster, and I can't even begin to put to words how proud I am of her and her fic. It's awesome! You all should go and check it out, and tell her that Gryffindor Heiress referred ya.

I don't own Harry Potter, and I no longer own Tom Felton. He said he had to go to the bathroom, so I untied him. Then he made a mad dash for the door, and left. But I now am the proud owner of my very own Sean Biggerstaff. He's gagged in my closet, and will be used for special purposes only. ::very devilish grin::



Chapter 22: Too Much to Comprehend

"Hey, isn't it your anniversary today?" Harry walked down the staircase to the common room to find Ron sitting by the fire by himself. "Did I miss the celebration or something?" Harry asked as he sat in the seat across from Ron. Ron was staring intently at the set of chess pieces sitting neatly in front of him. "You want to play some Wizard's Chess?" Ron just sat there. "Ron, you're not helping me. What's wrong?"

Ron moved his lips, but Harry didn't hear any sound escape them.

"I didn't catch that." Ron leaned over and roughly grabbed Harry's arm. He pulled him forward, causing Harry to knock to chess pieces over, "What the.?"

"She's a werewolf." Ron whispered. Harry pulled his arm away from Ron.

"*What* did you just say?"

"She's a werewolf. They all are. She isn't here because it's a full moon, and our anniversary just had to land on one, and I couldn't keep it to myself, I had to tell you, but don't let her know I told you because she might think I took advantage of her trust-"

"Slow down. Now, wait a minute. Who do you mean by 'they'?" Harry asked.

"Harry, all of them. All of the 'permanent exchange students': Camille, Penny, Erin, Mikaela, Alina. Now that I think of all the clues they left, and the fact we already knew a werewolf when they came, we should've been able to see it from the off."

"Why did-"

"You were in danger."

"Me?"

"Remember that whole thing about the 'big hairy beast' at the Winter Ball? Well, that thing is called Keverene. He's this werewolf guy that some people think isn't a werewolf, but just a wolf. Anyways, this Keverene guy wanted to kill you. He knew all about this stuff with You-Know-Who, and he wanted to get you over on his side or something like that. They came here because Alina was supposed to watch over you. She's like your body guard."

"Why hasn't she been here from the beginning?"

"Didn't you say once that you felt like you were being watched? Her brother had been watching over you for quite a while. He made sure you were never in danger. But then he died, and Alina took his place. She found a way to get herself into Hogwarts, and the rest is history."

"Why can't Dumbledore help me?"

"I talked to Professor Lupin about that. He said that it's not a witch or wizard's duty to get involved in werewolf business. It's something strictly between werewolves. They, I guess, get offended if humans try to put their say in it."

"What happened to...?"

"Keverene? He died the night of the Winter Ball. He was found with a silver rod through his stomach. Silver kills werewolves. Remember that lesson we had on werewolves?" Harry nodded.

"Who killed him?"

"I don't know."

"Are we the only ones that know about this?" Harry asked out of curiosity.

"I suppose it's just us and the teachers, and Dumble-"

"Hey! Wait, remember that Howler Draco got?" Ron smirked.

"Serves that git right. He deserved the humil-"

"Ron! Lucius said something about a 'moon-fearing Gryffindor.' That means he must know."

"How?"

"Merlin, it all makes sense now. Draco told me he ratted her out, but I didn't understand what he meant. He...he put two and two together and realized that she was a werewolf. He told his dad, who must've told Volde-"

"You-Know-Who." Ron corrected.

"His dad must've told You-Know-Who. Draco said that when he pulled Alina out of the water, she claimed she saw-"

"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, continue please."

"So...so Voldemort-"

"Damn it, Harry!"

"He tried using Alina as bait, to fetch me, instead Draco knew better and went after her instead. It was a good thing, too, because if I showed up, I'd be toast. So, he went to all lengths to try to find something close to me, came up with Alina, found out what she was, and plotted ways to get me."

"You-Know-Who can't kill her easily. She *is* a werewolf." Ron pointed out.

"This is a total assumption, but I think You-Know-Who killed Keverene. He must know how to dispose of werewolves, and he'll find a way to do it to Alina."

"Why didn't he kill her to begin with if he knew how? He tried to drown her."

"She was bait, remember. Now everything is the other way around. I have to protect her."

"Without getting killed yourself. What were you doing talking to Malfoy anyway?" Ron asked.

"It's a long story."

******

A few days later, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting together at breakfast.

"They should be back soon." Ron whispered to Harry.

"Where did they go in the first place?" Hermione asked.

"Family emergency in France. They had to go home." Ron explained.

"They all had family emergencies at the same time?"

"No...just Meg's family."

"And they all had to go?"

"All the families are close." Harry looked to the doors to the Great Hall, and nudged Ron.

"They're here." Harry announced.

"And not looking too good. It must've been some emergency."

"Shut up Hermione." Ron said as Megan sat herself between him and Hermione.

"How's your family? I hope you're doing well." Hermione said.

"Huh?" Megan asked as she began piling food onto her plate.

"Your family. Isn't that why you left? Family emergency?"

"Uh...yeah... Um, where'd you hear that anyway?" Megan asked, her mouth full of toast.

"Ron." Hermione said as she crinkled her nose. Megan nodded.

"Gee, I feel mighty shitty." Alina said, plopping herself down in the seats across from the four.

"You're taking the emergency that badly?" Hermione asked.

"Huh?" Megan kicked Alina from under the table. "What was-"

"Lina, my family emergency. It.it still pains me." Megan said, putting her face in her hands. Alina looked at her oddly. "The emergency. The emergency that caused us to miss three days of school."

"Uh, OHHHHHHH yeah, the emergency. Yeah, um.um, my mom got a heart transplant."

"I thought it was Meg's family." Hermione said. Alina blushed.

"Did I say my mom? Well, uh...I meant Meg's mom. Her mom is like my mom, so I call them both moms, heh-heh. Yeah, uh...Mom, which is Meg's mom, got a heart transplant, and we were there for like three days. So, uh, yeah, that's why we were gone for three days." Alina said before gulping down pumpkin juice. "I'm keeping my mouth shut for the rest of breakfast."

"Don't talk to me. I don't feel like talking." Penelope threw herself down beside Alina. They all looked at her. "Fine, I got a letter from Penelope Clearwater again, and she said she spoke to Percy about me, and he said he doesn't know me. So, I wrote a letter to Percy, and I asked him about Penelope Clearwater, and he said that he doesn't know her. Someone is trying to pull a prank on me or something." Penelope pulled a piece of a parchment out of her robes and handed it to Hermione. "That's Penelope's letter. This is Percy's." she pulled another piece of parchment out of robes, and handed it to Hermione.

"I think you should plan to meet the both of them in Hogsmeade. I mean tell Percy that you want to spend time with him this Saturday at our Hogsmeade trip. He'll think it's date. Then, you tell Penelope that you want to meet her in Hogsmeade, but tell her the whole purpose. You two will get Percy, and make him tell you two the whole truth. There's no better way than getting the both of you together with Percy." Hermione said.

"Why do I have a feeling that when he's through explaining, the two will kill him?" Ron asked.

"I will NEVER!" Penelope defended.

"RIIIIIIIGHT." Megan said.

"Harry, why are you ignoring me?" all eyes were now on Cho Chang, who had approached the table.

"What?" Harry didn't know what she was talking about.

"Harry, you're ignoring me. Don't act like you didn't notice because I notice. You shouldn't be treating your own girlfriend like this." Cho put her hand on her hip, and looked at Harry sternly.

"Wait! WHAT!? You're her boyfriend?" Alina questioned Harry. Harry shrugged. "How could you not know?" Megan cleared her throat.

"I thought you weren't going to talk anymore." Megan said jokingly.

"Yeah, keep your mouth shut, and get used to me and Harry dating because I don't see us breaking up any time soon, UNLESS Harry keeps on ignoring me."

"Keep up the good work, Harry." Ron said.

"Shut up." Cho snapped.

"You don't tell him to shut up. For your information, he's Harry's best friend." Megan said.

"Funny, I thought that when you're best friends with the captain of the Quidditch team, you're automatically promised the spot on the Quidditch team." Cho sneered.

"Why do you always have to bring that up?" Ron asked, getting annoyed.

"You know it's true, Ron. You thought it was going to be easy for you to get on the team because your best friend is captain. But Little Miss Prissy Shit shows up and gets the spot. It just so happens Harry likes her. Is it a coincidence she got the spot instead of you? I think not."

"SHUT UP!" Alina dunked her hand into the pot of porridge, took her hand out, and splattered the porridge all over Cho. The people around them were silent. Cho dunked her hand into the pot of porridge, and splattered the porridge on Alina.

"Childish of you to result in food fighting."

"You must be just as childish to have followed." Alina grabbed a handful of scrambled eggs and threw it at Cho. But Cho ducked, and it hit Camille, who was sitting at the table beside the Gryffindor table. Alina fell back into her seat, and pointed accusingly at Cho. "It was Cho!" Alina exclaimed. Camille stood up as she picked the food out of her hair. She grabbed a handful of scrambled eggs, but instead of hitting Cho, it hit Ron. Following that, there was food flying all over the place between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. Breakfast food was going all over the place, and some people were being sprayed with pumpkin juice.

"It's great to be back!" Megan said before someone poured a goblet of pumpkin juice over her head.

******

Dream Sequence

Harry spun around, taking in his surroundings. It was dimly lit, and there was stalactite above him. He squinted his eyes, trying to look for an exit. He stood there, with two paths before him. He would've resulted in going down the path from which he came, but he didn't know where he came from. He just ended up there. Perhaps one path was brighter than the other. Maybe one led to outside, where the sun was shining. But he looked down the paths, and they were both equally dark.

He heard screaming, and his feet were dragging him down one path, but his heart was telling him to go down the other. He heard the screaming again, and he realized his body was trying to take him away from it. He didn't want to be away from it. He wanted to know who was screaming.

He forced himself down the other path, and it got darker as he went. There was screaming: ear-splitting, high-pitched screaming. Who was screaming? He wanted to know.

The path kept getting darker, until his was in total darkness. He tried feeling around the walls, but pulled his hands back when he felt something slithering under his fingers. There was loud hissing coming from all around him. It was almost as if someone were whispering to him. Wait. Someone was whispering to him.

"Turn back." It warned. "Turn back."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"He's here. He's found her. She is going to die."

"Who? Who is going to die?"

"The girl. She's the key."

"The key?"

"The key to getting what he wants."

"Who's he? What does he want?"

"Just turn back. Leave. Go down the other path, and never come back."

"I'm not turning back." Harry kept walking, and the hissing grew louder in his ears. Loud hissing.

"TURN BACK! DON'T MOVE ON! GO WHILE YOU CAN!" Harry covered his ears and kept running. He ran blindly in the darkness. He was sure he was going to crash into a wall at any moment. "YOU'RE TOO FAR IN TO GET OUT! YOU WERE WARNED!" the hissing stopped. Harry couldn't feel the ground below him anymore, and he fell. He was falling, and he couldn't even see what was below him. He heard humming, soft humming off in the distance. It got louder as he fell deeper. The deeper he fell, the louder it got. Loud humming. No. It was chanting. Loud chanting.

"Mudblood...Mudblood...Mudblood..." Hermione was in danger.

He hit the ground. The chanting was clearer now.

"Death to the Mudblood...Death to the Mudblood...Death to the Mudblood..."Why did they want Hermione?

He was running now. He was panting, running, sweating. There was light at the end of the path. It grew brighter and brighter. He kept running. The chanting was getting louder.

"DEATH to the MUDBLOOD...DEATH to the MUDBLOOD...DEATH to the MUDBLOOD."

Harry tripped over his own feet. He hit the hard ground. The chanting was in his ears now. His ears were ringing. He looked up. A green fire was blazing. Hooded people were everywhere. The hooded people were chanting. They were circling the fire. Harry began feeling nauseated. That meant only one thing. Dementors.

The hooded people and dementors stopped circling the fire. The fire died down. Three people stood behind the fire. One tall hooded figure, and two short hooded figures. The tall one removed his hood. The hairs on Harry's back stood on end. It was Lord Voldemort.

"The Boy Who Lived will die today. Right, my Lord?" there was a man at Voldemort's feet. He was kissing the hems of his robes. "This girl is the key, my Lord? She is the key?"

"Yes, Avery, she is. She is the key to the future, to my future. With her, I am secured a future without Harry Potter. Potter will come looking for her. She is bait." Voldemort seized her arm and held her close to him. The hooded figure was struggling against his grasp. "But she'll be dead before he even realizes she's gone." He let out a sinister laugh. "Wormtail, my wand!" Voldemort barked. Pudgy, balding Peter Pettigrew removed his hood. He pulled a long wand out of his robes and handed it to Voldemort. "Take her." Voldemort pushed the hooded figure into Wormtail. He almost fell down, but caught his balance and gripped her arms. He forced her onto her knees before Voldemort. "Remove her hood." Voldemort ordered. Wormtail yanked the hood to reveal Alina Halliwell. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but no sound escaped her lips. "Mudbloods like you do not belong in our society." He raised his wand.

"Mudblood? She's a witch. She's a werewolf. He can't kill her with a wand." Harry whispered to himself.

"Avada Kedavra." His wand was pointed at her forehead. She was hit with the curse, and collapsed. Dead.

End of Dream Sequence

A/N: Okay, so I'm officially evil. In a couple of hours or so, I should be adding the next few chapters, and then it'll all be over. This is chapter 22, right? Let's see, six more chapters to go! YAY!!! -Gryffindor Heiress