Last time I put up a chapter, I couldn't write thanks to the reviewers, sorry. I'm going to now though, because you really don't know how much I appreciate it! I'm writing to you no matter what chapter you reviewed.

Thanks TO: BABYSTINCKBREATH- It's finally here, and I'm glad you wanted me to come back so much!; TEARS FORM THE MOON-I still LOVE your story, thanks for the reviews, I'm so happy you are reading; TO: CHRISTA-Thanks for reviewing, it's just weird because every time Harry or anyone says Voldemort around Ron he always wants them to call him You-Know-Who; TO: RYU- NO-NEKO-I'm glad you like the story, and thanks for the review! TO: CARIEL- I know I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm and horrible speller and horrible at grammar! Sorry! Thanks for the review! TO: COFFEEPLEAZE- Thanks for all of your reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying the story! TO: MEGAN-Was your caps lock on or were you just really excited, I'll go with excited, either way thanks for reading and reviewing! TO: CURLSOFGOLD- That's one of my favorite parts of Ron and Hermione's relationship, they're always embarrassed, and lots more embarrassment to come, thanks for the review! TO: LIGHTPRINCESS-YES! Ron and Hermione together forever! I agree about the fics, when I do venture to the dark side (H/Hr) the fics aren't very good. Maybe it's the lack of realism, because like I said - Ron and Hermione together forever! Or maybe it's just the fact that R/Hr shippers are more dedicated to their ship, either way, thanks! TO: MAGICWATERMELON-I hope you read and found out that everything turned out okay, thanks for the review! TO: SnWfLaKeSwEeTy-sorry it took me so long to review, but my computer wouldn't even turn on, all fixed now though! Thanks for the review! TO: SARAH-from now on I'm going to try to post faster, but this next part is going to be hard to write! TO: HI-What? I'm going to take that as a complement! TO: CHICKADEE-More R/Hr to come, but it wont be all at once. TO: SWEETPOET2003:Thanks for the review, I love Dobby too, and thanks for saying it's like the 5th book will be, that REALLY means a lot to me! TO: ALAYNA- thanks for the review and thanks for reading! TO: HERMANDRON4EVER- Thanks for reading and reviewing! TO: ANN-Thanks for reading and reviewing, glad you liked it! TO: SEAN SZAMA-One of my favorite authors thanks for the reviews. TO: HERMIONE CLINE-Thanks for the review and I'm glad you were reading, Heather!

And a special thanks to those of you who have this story on their favorites lists, that really means a lot to me: HermioneWeasley, lightprincess, LadyGarurumon12, hermandron4ever, norfintrollgirl!

And to all of my reviewers, this is a transition chapter, the next chapter will have more excitement, but it might take a while to come up. The next chapter might be the most important one for 5th year!

Sorry this took so long to get up, but my computer wouldn't run my disk! (Don't ask, b/c I don't know)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, It's all JK. Well, I do own my own copy of the books, and my computer, but I just barrow the characters!

Chapter 14 Nighttime Expeditions

That night, at about 1:30 Harry, Ron, and Hermione met in the Gryffindor common room. Harry brought the invisibility cloak and the Maurders Map. The three of them got under the cloak, and checked the map, before leaving for the Astronomy tower.

They crept quietly through the portrait hole without waking the Fat Lady. It seemed like hours walking through the deserted corridors of Hogwarts. The shadows were very spooky and they could hear what sounded like whispering coming from different rooms.

They reached the Astronomy tower 25 minutes later and finally took the cloak off. They each got a chair and went to sit in front of the huge windows that lined the tower for their midnight star gazing classes.

They sat there for what seemed like hours thought it was only about 20 minutes until they finally saw something.

The awkwardness between the group was coming back like it had never left. Harry tried to concentrate on the shadowy grounds and not the tension building in the room, so he paced. He walked silently in the back of the room, every once in a while glancing at Ron and Hermione, or out of the window, but no one spoke until.

"Look" Hermione said leaning closer to the window, "Look, what's that?"

Harry walked quickly back over to the window and he and Ron peered out and could make out the shadowy figures of three people in long black cloaks. The three people were walking on the out skirts of the forest, toward Hagrid's cabin.

"What are they doing?" Harry asked, squinting as the dark shapes got smaller.

"I don't know, but they are headed for Hagrid's, I hope he's OK." Said Ron

"What are we going to do? What if they do something to him!" Hermione squealed anxiously.

"We've got to go tell him they're there, he could be in danger" said Harry. Ron and Hermione had already headed toward the door, Ron grabbed the Invisibility cloak, and they all got under it.

Once they reached the front doors, as quietly as they could they opened them and peered around in the direction of Hagrid's cabin. They couldn't see any lights on in the windows, and they couldn't see any of the three figures that had been walking around a few moments before.

They opened the doors just enough for all three of them to squeeze out, light from the Entrance Hall illuminated the grass, but only for a second, they closed the door quickly and made there way toward the game keepers cabin.

They reached the front door, and Harry whispered, "I don't want to wake him up, what if it was nothing"

"Look in the window, Ron, you're the tallest, and see if he's asleep." Said Hermione, looking nervous.

Ron took off the cloak and walked up to the window and looked in. It was very dark inside. The first thing Ron saw was Fang, asleep on the floor, in front of the faint glowing fire. Ron looked around to Hagrid's bed and he saw him asleep, he looked fine. There was no one else in there with him, ready to curse him or anything. Ron shrugged, and turned to the spot where he could only assume Harry and Hermione were, and said, very quietly, "Nothing, he's fine"

Harry held the cloak up so Ron could go under it as well. They all decided there was nothing they really could do so they thought they would go back up to the castle. They turned to go, but at that moment they all stopped dead.

A branch from a tree suddenly snapped, and it sounded like a gunshot. They froze and listened, they could hear voices, one in particular, Harry recognized all too well.

"You idiot! Do you want to wake the whole castle?"

"I'm so sorry my lord, it won't happen again, it was an accident."

All three of them recognized the second voice. They listened very hard, but couldn't make out what they were saying; they were walking away, into the forest.

Without even discussing anything, all three of them turned, and as quietly as they could, followed the voices into the forest.

It really only dawned on them that they were actually going into the forest once they were right at the edge of the 40 foot tall trees. Ron, all of a sudden, wasn't too keen to continue he thought about his last experiences in the forest, but went along all the same.

Every once in a while they would hear feet crushing the light frost that covered the ground, or they would see one black cloak go around a tree that they could follow.

They walked silently through the trees for almost 10 minutes, the farthest any of them had ever been into the forest. The trees thickened, and though the moon was bright, they could barely see where they were going.

They reached a small clearing, and one of the three people pulled off their hoods in frustration. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all gasped at whom they saw. It was Lucious Malfoy. Luckily he was too busy telling one of the other men off to pay attention to the trio's very audible surprise.

"Wormtail, you idiot!"

"Calm down, and put your hood back on, someone may be watching, and don't use any names." Ordered the third voice.

"Yes, master" Lucius responded.

"Now, how long have you been monitoring the castle?" Voldemort began, in a much calmer voice.

"Months," said Lucius in an extremely annoyed voice.

".and nothing?" Voldemort asked.

"Nothing" said Lucius.

Neither Harry, Ron, nor Hermione had a clue as to what they were talking about, but they listened hard to make sure they didn't miss a word.

"Well, very well. Have you contacted everyone? Are they ready?" Voldemort inquired of Lucius.

"I have been in touch with most," Lucius began "all but a few, whom I plan to contact this week." He added hastily, under what Harry could only assume was a horrible look from Voldemort from under his cloak.

"Very well, of the one's you have contacted, are they ready for the up coming year? This year will be very eventful, indeed." Voldemort said with a mocking tone in his voice.

"They are ready, my lord, and most willing, especially for the attack. The plans are going very smoothly, so far. I predict your brilliant plan will be most successful, master"

"Good. Well, I believe we are done here. We should leave, this place is very insecure, anyone could be listening."

The three of them began walking, very slowly trying not to make a sound, toward the depths of the forest. Harry immediately followed, but that was a big mistake, he hadn't walked three steps when he too, stepped on a branch from a tree and the crack echoed through the still night sky.
CLIFFHANGER! (I do love those)

You know something that really makes me mad; when I re-read chapters that I have already put up and I find lots of errors! I HATE THAT! I know, I'm a horrible speller and I'm horrible at grammar. I'm sorry for all of the mistakes.

Preview for the next chapter: The major death JK talked about! (And I'm really upset about it! I'm going to cry!) Old characters return -Bane, Firenze, and Ronan. Mr. Weasley's car returns and Harry finally uses the Phoenix!

More than half of this chapter was just the author's note!

Thanks for reading and please review!