Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter-13

                                                                Detention

                Harry slowly walked backed towards Gryffindor tower, all the while thinking about the new information that Dumbledore had given him just a few moments back. About how he believed that Voldemort was becoming more powerful, about how Dumbledore temporarily stopped Voldemort from expanding his army, and about how not even Dumbledore could learn how to activate the mysterious book of dark arts that he found on platform nine and three quarters.

                Harry looked down at the book more carefully than before. 'How does it work?' he wondered. 'How did I activate it before?'

                He stopped for a minute, opened the book and held it up right in front of his face. The pages were of course still blank. He turned a few pages, thinking that maybe you have to be on the right page for the book to reveal its dark spells. He tried to turn it to the same page which he did when he first opened it. But the book still remained blank.

                Harry shook the book a few times, closed and opened it to around the same page as he did on platform nine and three quarters, but still nothing happened. "I should've expected this," He said to himself. "If Dumbledore couldn't find out how to work the book, then there's little chance that I'll be able to." Harry had almost given up on the idea of trying to activate the book's power, when a new thought rushed into his head.

                'What if I wasn't the one who activated the book?' He thought. He opened the book one more time and looked closely at it. 'It could've been that person who ran into me.' He stopped for a moment, closed the book and looked back down at it. 'But then why did the spells just disappear? It can't just be, that when you close the book, the spells disappear because I found the book closed on the ground.' Harry started to walk back to Gryffindor tower, while at the same time continued to try to piece the mystery of the book together. 'It doesn't have anything to do with time limit; otherwise it would have disappeared while I was flying to school. And I definitely remember looking at it once or twice while I was waiting for the feast to finish. This doesn't make sense.'

                He finally arrived at Gryffindor tower and saw that the fat lady in the portrait was once again talking with her friend violet. "Um, excuse me," he said.

                The fat lady turned to him, and with a scowl on her face said, "Can't you see that I'm trying to have a conversation with Vi here?"

                "Sorry," Harry said almost automatically.

                "Why aren't you at lunch with all the other Gryffindors?"

                "I wasn't hungry."

                "Very well, Password?"

                And right there and then it hit Harry, he was never told the password needed to get into Gryffindor tower. Professor McGonagall was obviously so angry with Snape that she forgot to tell Harry the password. And by the time Harry left Dumbledore's office, he was so preoccupied with thoughts of Voldemort that he forgot to tell Dumbledore that he didn't know his password.

                "Er…" Harry started, not knowing exactly what to say. "Er, caput draconis?" Harry said doubtfully.

                "Very funny," The fat Lady responded giving Harry a stern look. "Do you know the password or not?"

                Harry looked at her for a moment not knowing what to say, when an idea came into his head. He reaches into his pocket and took out the prefects badge that professor McGonagall gave him the previous day and flashed it in front of the fat lady. "I'm a Gryffindor prefect, so it's okay if you just let me in."

                "Young man, I don't care if you're the minister of magic, if you don't have the password you can't get in! Now do you have it or not?" She finished with a very stern and impatient voice.

                "Well, not really, but…"

                But before Harry could continue and try to explain his situation, the fat lady just turned away from him and continued talking to her friend.

                Knowing that he probably wasn't going to get anywhere if he remained there and tried to convince the fat lady to open the passage to the Gryffindor tower, Harry just turned and set off towards Filch's office. He didn't really want to be late arriving there. Filch wasn't the type of person who would pardon a person if he was a little tardy. He was a squib-a person born in a magical family, but who possessed no magical abilities of their own; and therefore despised all students-who were able to use magic. Harry had already been in trouble with him a few number of times, and he knew that he definitely wasn't on Filch's good list.

                He arrived at Filch's office, knocked gently, and waited for an answer. When he heard a loud growl telling him to come inside, he slowly entered. Filch's office looked exactly like it did the first time Harry had been inside it during his second year. It had an old, moldy dungeon-like appearance to it. The only thing that looked remotely new in the office were the shackles by Filch's desk. He obviously polished them often, hoping that one day Dumbledore will once again allow him to use them on students who got detention.

                As soon as Harry closed the door and turned to face a smiling Filch, he knew that he would not enjoy the next few hours.

                And, as it turned out he was right. For the next six hours Filch had Harry clean all the toilets at Hogwarts (girls and boys). And he seemed to get really irritated when Harry asked him why moaning Myrtle's bathroom had been sealed off. "None of your business!" He growled. "You're not here to ask questions, you're here to clean."

                After what was possibly the most disgusting detention Harry's ever served was over a new trouble arose.

                Filch told Harry that his next detention was in a few minutes and that it would be with Hermione Granger.

                "What do you mean?" Harry asked, with worry in his voice. It was true that he wanted to see Hermione again, but he just wasn't ready at the moment, still thinking that she hasn't forgiven him.

                "She's doing a little review session for all those who have forgotten some spells and hexes, and you're going to be the practice dummy," Filch said with gleam in his voice.

                Harry was about to protest, but was interrupted when Filch stuck a parchment right in Harry's face. "She'll have to sign this and return it to professor McGonagall. And I'm warning you, if you two try anything funny, this parchment will flash red and then you'll both be in even more trouble."

                Harry slowly nodded his head, took the parchment, the book of dark arts that he left on Filch's desk while he was out cleaning all the toilets in Hogwarts and left Filch's office. He slowly walked down towards the dungeon that Filch told him Hermione would be in, all the while thinking about what would happen in a few minutes. He remembered Dumbledore telling him that his second detention would be with Hermione, but he was so preoccupied with the news that Dumbledore had told him, and the fact that he was serving two detentions in one day, that he didn't really pay too much attention. Each step he took towards the dungeons was harder than the previous step. Then finally after about ten minutes Harry arrived at the door of the dungeon where Hermione was.

                He stopped, took a deep breath and was bout to open the door, when he heard voices coming from it. Harry leaned his ear by the door, and recognized the other voice to be Neville's.

                "But why did Dumbledore start this wizard duel thing now anyways?" Harry heard Neville ask.

                "I don't know." Responded a voice that sounded like Hermione's. As soon as Harry heard her voice, he froze. His insides began to feel colder than before. He shook it off and proceeded to open the door.

                'The answer is obvious.' Harry thought as his hand gripped the door handle. 'He's preparing us for the future.'

                Harry slowly turned the handle and started opening the door. As soon as it was a crack open Harry was able to see Hermione standing behind it. She obviously didn't see him; otherwise she'd have called him inside. As soon as he saw her, his entire insides froze. All the pain that he felt during the summer, and the pain of remembering her tearstained face, when he left her house came back to him. It was getting harder for him to breathe properly. He stumbled backwards a bit, as a sweat drop dripped from his brow. He wanted to see her again, to hear her voice again; he wanted to go inside, but the pain inside of him was becoming too strong.

               

                "It's all your fault." A voice started to whisper inside his head. "It's all your fault." Harry feeling more pain than before immediately clutched his head with both hands, as he continued stumbling backwards. "It's all your fault." The voice continued chanting while, while Harry could do nothing but breathe hoarsely. He felt as though he was going to pass out again, like he did the previous night in the forbidden forest. "It's all your fault." Harry was about to scream when…

                "Harry," A gentle voice called out. And suddenly everything stopped. The frozen feeling was gone, the voice had disappeared, and the pain he was feeling inside his head was also disappearing.

                "Harry," The voice called again. Harry looked up and saw Hermione standing in the doorway looking right at him. 

                "Her-Hermione," Harry said slowly. He couldn't understand what just happened. One minute he was on the brink of insanity [again], the next minute he felt normal.

                Hermione stepped out of the dungeon and closed the door. She faced Harry, careful to avoid his eyes. "I'm glad you came back," she said in a low voice. "Sirius owled me, and told me that you might not come back."

                "I almost didn't," Harry said in a voice so low, that it sounded more like a whisper. "But I couldn't break my promise to Sirius. No matter what."

                Both Harry and Hermione stood silent for a minute, neither knowing what to say to the other. It was Harry who broke the silence when he said, "So what exactly are you doing here?"

                "I'm doing a little remedial review kind of thing. So far, Neville is the only one here, but others said that they would stop by, what with the wizards duel and all, by the way, have you heard about it yet?"

                Harry nodded. "Dumbledore told me all about it in his office."

                "What were you doing in his office?" Hermione asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

                "He was asking me if I had any information about Voldemort." Harry answered, once again in a very low voice.

                Hermione looked down, wishing that she really didn't ask that question, for now they were once again, both silent.

                This time it was Hermione who broke the silence when she said, "So what exactly are you doing here?"

                "I'm here to help you with your lesson." Harry answered giving Hermione the parchment.

                Hermione read it and said, "So they didn't trust me."

                "What do you mean?" asked Harry.

                "This is a specto-parchment. It flashes red if it believes you're doing something dishonest. It works just like a muggle lie detector."

                "Lie detector?" Harry looked at her quizzically.

                "Yes," Hermione said facing him again. "Many people believe that in order to fool the lie detector all you have to do is stay very calm, and not worry, when the truth is that, that only make it easier for the machine to do its job." She looked back down at the parchment and continued. "There is a certain nervous reaction that happens in your brain whenever you lie; your nerves sort of twitch. The lie detector picks up on this little abnormality and responds with the needle going back and forth on the paper. This parchment works in the same way." She looked back up at Harry. "The only people who can fool a lie detector are people can successfully convince their brains that the lie is actually the truth. And people like that are usually people who have no conscience, the biggest scum of the earth. I bet you-know-who would be able to lie through the whole thing easily."

                Once again, both of them became silent. But this time it wasn't Harry or Hermione who broke it, it was Seamus Fannigan who said, "Hey, is this the review?"

                Hermione answered yes, and ushered both Seamus and Harry into the Dungeon.

                A few more people showed up (mostly from Hufflepuff), and the lesson went very smoothly aside from the obvious difficulty Harry and Hermione had being around each other. Both Harry and Hermione were able to help the troubled students with many spells that they had forgotten over the years, and they made the lesson more bearable, because they weren't threatening the students with bad grades. The only person who had trouble was Neville. When Hermione told him to transfigure a grape into an cockroach, Neville turned it into a cockroach cluster, when Harry told Neville to use a simple switching spell on a chair and a cactus, he ended up switching the chair's legs with his own. But even after that, Neville didn't give up. He was planning on entering the tournament and get back the Longbottom family's good name. Although both Harry and Hermione thought that there was a greater chance of him being kidnapped by aliens, they both gave him their support.

                After the session was over, everyone except Harry and Hermione had left. The two had to stay and clean up the dungeon (mostly the mess that Neville made). For a moment Harry and Hermione both understood why Snape was so vindictive of Neville. For the mess that Neville left after his antidote blew up seemed like it would take hours to clean.

                During the entire cleanup session, neither Harry nor Hermione said a word to each other. In fact, they didn't even look at each other.

                It was only after they finished cleaning that they congratulated each other on a job well done. Obviously they were each pleased with the way the lesson went.

                 "Would you liked some tea, before we leave Harry?" Hermione offered.

                Harry just nodded and said,  "Sounds great."

                While Hermione was boiling the water with her magic blue fire, Harry was debating on whether he should bring up the subject of the night he left her house. He hated himself more than ever now, after seeing Hermione act to nice, like nothing ever happened. The truth was, that although he was afraid of Hermione hating him, but inside that was what he really wanted. That way, at least he wouldn't be able to hurt her anymore. He looked up and saw her walking towards him with two cups of hot tea in her hands.

                "Here you go," she said as she handed Harry a cup.

                "Thanks," he responded as he took it from her.

                She sat down right near him, took a sip of her tea and turned back to him and said, "professor McGonagall said that you decided to take arithmancy this year."

                Harry just nodded as he took a sip of his tea; it tasted sweet and bitter at the same time. But Harry pretended not to notice.

                "She also said," Hermione continued. "That I should tutor you to help you catch up on the stuff you missed since you're going to be in the intermediate class and not in the beginners."

                Harry just nodded again.

                "I was thinking that it would be impossible to catch you up on an entire years missed work, so I'd just help you with the fundamentals, and the parts that have something to do with your current lessons."

                Harry nodded again and said, "Sounds good."

                Hermione took another sip of her tea and said, "So are you going to enter the wizards duel?"

                Harry thought for a moment and said, "probably not."

                "Why not?" asked Hermione. "You'd stand a good chance of winning, and the top four winners get an O.W.L. accredited to their transcript."

                "So I take it that you'll be entering," Harry said, facing her.

                "Of course," Hermione answered enthusiastically. "But it's not just that. It's also a great chance to see how much I improved over the last five years here. You know, compared to everyone else."

                "But you got the top grades in our year. Doesn't that tell you how you did?"

                "Yeah, on tests, but not out in the field. I really need to practice these things while I'm under pressure. Don't you remember what happened when I faced that boggart?"

                "I don't think that had anything to do with your capabilities, you were just very frustrated that year."

                "That's no excuse. You were able to face the boggart, and yours was much more difficult than mine," She stopped, took another sip of tea and continued, "in fact, compared to facing a dementor, my fear almost seemed laughable."

                "I didn't think so," Harry said.

                Harry and Hermione both became silent once again.

                "You know Harry, everyone was really worried about you," Hermione said breaking the silence, completely changing the subject, and causing Harry's insides to turn. "I mean after what happened last year and all."

                Harry just put his tea on the ground and said, "really?"

                "What happened to you, Harry?" Hermione cried. "You've completely changed after last year."

                Harry just remained silent.

                "Whenever I look into your eyes all I see is pain, death. Why, what's going on?"

                Harry looked at her and saw that there were tears forming in her eyes. It seemed obvious that she has kept this inside for a while, that she had wanted to say that since the moment she saw him. He looked down at the floor, sighed and said, "I wish I knew, that way I could end it all."

                "You know something! Tell me, maybe I can help you!"

                "I can't." Harry said in a low voice.

                "Why not?" Hermione cried, tears already starting to fall.

                "You wouldn't understand."

                "What wouldn't I understand?"

                Harry just sighed and said, "You're just going to have to trust me."

                "Fine!" Hermione snapped as she stood up and looked down at Harry.

"So, what do you want to do tomorrow, study together, go to the Three Broomsticks and have a butterbeer, maybe practice a few new spells together?!" She shouted, her voice full of sarcasm.

Harry just sat there and didn't answer.

"Harry!" she continued. "Either I'm your friend or not, there is no 'in between'! And friends help each other! But I can't help you, if you keep shooting me down every time I try to get a little closer to you! Furthermore, I am getting very tired of worrying about you all the time! You're going to have to choose now, am I your friend or not?"

                Harry just continued sitting there in silence.

                After a few moment of silence, Hermione broke it by shouting, "Fine!" She walked over to the table, slammed her empty tea cup on it, took the specto-parchment that Harry brought her, signed it and dropped it right in front of Harry. "Your sentence is over! Enjoy your life!" With that, she turned on her heel and angrily stopped towards the door.

                "Dumbledore was wrong," Harry said to her, a second before she was about to open the door.

                "What is that supposed to mean?" She said angrily as she turned to face Harry once again.

                Harry stood up and started to walk closer towards her. "Last year, during the second task, Dumbledore was wrong."

                "What are you talking about Harry? We're not discussing the second task from that stupid tournament now, we're discussing you and me?"

                "When he assigned Ron to be my victim," Harry continued as if he hadn't even heard her. "It's true that I would greatly miss Ron if he disappeared, but he's not the person whom I would've missed most."

                "What do you mean?" Hermione asked, her voice getting softer.

                "Only one person was always there for me through these past few years," He continued while coming closer towards her. "Only one person always had my best interest in mind, and did what was best for me, even when it meant me getting angry with her. Only one person stood by me when no one else would," He stopped moving when he was a meter away from her. "You. You were always there for me, no matter what the situation or the consequences. Even when you were completely petrified you were there for me."

                Hermione went a little red and said, "I'm sure you would've done the same for me."

                "You were and still are the person that I would miss most, Hermione. Up until a few seconds ago, I wanted you to hate me. I thought that that way, I wouldn't be able to hurt you anymore. But when it was actually a possibility, I realized that that wasn't what I wanted after all. I'm really lucky to have a friend like you. And if you still want to listen, I'm willing to tell you everything you want to know."

                Hermione nodded, wiped that last remaining tears from her eyes, and followed Harry towards the seats.

                "First of all," Harry started as soon as the sat down. "Mr. Crouch had a good reason for sacking Winky." Harry immediately broke into the entire story of what happened to him during fourth year. Of how he really lost his wand during the quidditch world cup, of how Moody was Barty Crouch's son in disguise, of he and Cedric were transported away from Hogwarts, of how Cedric was murdered right in front of Harry's eyes, of Voldemort's resurrection, of how he was forced to duel with Voldemort, and of what happened when their wands met. Many times during the story Harry saw that Hermione was starting to cry but nevertheless he continued.

                "And now, there's a voice in my head. It randomly appears and blames me for what happened. And for what's going to happen. I don't understand it, but this voice has some kind of power over me. It seems to be able to suck out all of my happiness, and all of my hope. I don't know how I've even managed to stay sane this long."

                Harry looked back at Hermione, and he saw that she was obviously not ready to hear everything that he had just told her. "I'm sorry." He said and just looked away.

                Before he could say anything else, he felt Hermione throw her arms around him. And he heard her say, "Don't worry, we'll get through all of this together. I promise."

                Harry, then put his arms around her and said, "Thanks."

A/N- How was that for a reunion. This chapter was supposed to be bigger, but once again it ran long so I had to cut it down, sorry. Please r/r.