((A/N Okay, I want to make it clear that this chapter may or may not make sense whatsoever ^_^ I wrote this chapter along time ago, but then I thought of something to add... so it may not sound right all together, I don't know. Read and Review! Oh and by the way, I am skipping through time a bit, yeah, you'll see what I mean. I do not own any of this stuff except the characters Lara, Kez, and Damon. And by the way, according to the fanfiction thing there will be 22 chapters on it but only because I did an authors note ))
"Hermione, you should really eat something... you haven't eaten anything all day," Harry murmured to her. December had ended quickly and the New Year had begun again. Break was finally over and classes had begun again.
"I'm not hungry," she replied back. She had been thinking about the Phantom's letter constantly now that Valentines Day was only about a month away.
Ron frowned at her. "C'mon 'Mione... you need to eat something. At least try some of this ham, it's really good." He said as he picked up the platter that had the ham on it and began waving it in front of her face.
Unexpectedly, a large brown barn owl flew into the Great Hall, dropping a small piece of paper right onto the ham.
"Bit late for mail, isn't it?" Ginny said as she looked up at the barn owl as it swooped out the window.
"Well... that was... bizarre," Ron mumbled also looking at the owl.
Hermione picked up the note. "It's to me..." she said as she carefully opened it. "That's odd..." she said as she examined the letter that said: - H
"Odd indeed," Ginny said, looking over her shoulder at the note. Hermione flipped the parchment around and saw sloppily scrawled onto the paper: Phantom.
"And so the phantom strikes again," Harry said, raising one eyebrow at Ron who turned severely red.
~*~*~*~*~
Ron pulled Harry into the boys' dormitory after dinner by the sleeve. "How long have you known?" He panted.
"What have I known?"" Harry replied.
"You know what I mean!" Ron yelled.
Harry grinned. "Oh, Ginny told me," he replied simply.
"How the bloody 'ell does she know?"
"Hermione told her about a..." Harry held up his fingers and did quotations " 'Masked Phantom' and I guess she supposedly described it as some mask that Fred and George own," he shrugged.
"Just great!" He moaned as he fell backwards onto his bed. "You didn't tell Hermione though, did you?" He asked in a panicky voice.
"No..."
"Good," Ron sighed.
"She wouldn't listen."
"Harry!" Ron yelled as he threw a pillow and Harry's head.
"Don't worry... Ginny and me agreed to stay out of it," He grinned. "So when are you going to send the next letter?"
"I don't know... probably a month or something," he replied, sighing heavily.
"Why are you waiting so long?"
"Cause the next ones the end of the riddle..." he replied.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that if she figures out the first two clues she'll know what'd come next."
"Wait...that's right! Ginny told me that Hermione showed her that you sent her a letter with an "eye" on it... You meant "I" not "Eye" Then the -H..." Harry paused for a long moment. "You... you offered her the ham... to her on purpose?" Ron nodded as Harry beamed.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Hermione walked into the girls' dormitory with an armful of books. She set her books on her bed and looked through them. Panic flooded through her mind. "Oh no!" She cried. "I left my journal in the common room again!" She was about to dart down the stairs when she saw a black owl perched on the window sill with a letter in it's beak. She cautiously walked towards it as it dropped the letter on the ground. She bent down and picked it up.
The owl flashed its eyes maliciously before spreading it's wings and flying out the window again. The letter had her name on it, neatly printed with black ink. She tore it open and read:
Dearest Hermione,
A darkened sky is almost near
My life without you is what I fear
Meet me in the Forbidden Forest
At exactly 10:00 sharp.
Phantom.
Hermione smiled brightly and threw the note on the ground hastily, completely forgetting about her journal. "Wait a second..." she looked at her watch. "It's 9:45!" she yelled as she slapped her forehead. She threw her coat over her homemade Weasley sweater that she was wearing and dashed down the stairs and quietly crept out of the common room that was nearly empty to the forest.
Ron walked down to the common room just as Hermione had left and sat down on one of the puffy chairs near the fireplace. He quickly sat up and turned around to the couch. A red leather bound book was sitting neatly on the chair. He recognized it once he saw the gold border.
"Hermione shouldn't be letting this lie around." He said as he picked it up off of the chair and sat down. He looked around deviously to see if anyone was watching him. -I know it's wrong to snoop, but I just want to read the page I started last time- he said in his mind. He quickly flipped through the pages until he recognized it as the one he was reading before.
Dear Journal,
Ever since I came back to Hogwarts, it feels like I don't belong here anymore. Now I sort of wish that I hadn't broken up with Victor. I know it's a silly thought but at least he had feelings for me. Ron just doesn't understand how much he actually means to me. But what's the use, he's been acting coldly to me since at least last year. It's just driving me mental how he just sees me as another one of the guys. I hope he'll understand someday, before it's too late that I do truly love him.
Hermione
Ron froze and gaped at the journal and re-read it at least eight times before Harry walked down into the common room. "What cha doing, mate?" Harry asked as he walked towards him. Ron hid Hermione's journal behind his back.
"Um, nothing... just uh... watching the fire burn," Ron sputtered. Harry raised an eyebrow as if he was going to say something else, but instead he looked over at Ginny who was just walking down from the girls' dormitory.
"Hello Harry, Ron," she said as she plopped down on the couch next to them with a letter in her hand that she began to read through. Her head shot back up as her eyes flashed over at Ron.
"RON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" she yelled.
"Didn't mum tell explain that to you? You see, when a woman and a man love each other very much..." Ron began but was stopped by Ginny grabbing a pillow and throwing it at Ron's head. Ron just merely ducked and it hit Harry in the face instead.
"That's not what I meant stupid!" She bit her lip and looked over at Harry. "Oh... sorry Harry."
"What is with you Weasleys and throwing pillows?" Harry muttered. Ron laughed and looked back at Ginny.
"What DO you mean then?" he asked.
"Why aren't you with Hermione?" she asked.
"I... uh... didn't know I was supposed to be," he shrugged.
"But the letter..."
"What letter?" Ron asked with a furrowed brow.
"The letter you sent..."
"I didn't send a letter to anyone," Ron replied.
"But you're the phantom, right?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah... so. What's this about?"
"This!" She shoved the letter in his face and he quickly read through it.
"I didn't send this," he said with a puzzled expression.
"Then... who did? And where is Hermione?"
-Meanwhile-
Hermione clambered through the snow covered forest and clutched on tightly to her cloak. "Hello?" she called out. "Anyone here?" She heard a muffled eerie cackle and gulped.
"I have been waiting for you," sad a small squeaky voice as dark figure walked towards her. The person had a large cloak with a hood that covered their face.
"Who... who are you?" she asked shivering as she stepped back.
The person lowered their hood to reveal their rat-like features with a bald spot on their head.
"Wo...Wormtail?" She gasped, backing up farther. "You're the phantom?" Hermione looked as though she was going to be sick.
"No of course not, you see," but it was too late for him to explain. Hermione had already fainted onto the snow covered ground.
"Well that was easier then I thought," Wormtail shrugged and pulled out a piece of paper and casually threw it on the ground. He grabbed her wrists and pulled her deeper into the forest.
-Meanwhile-
"Well, you must have seen her leave the dormitory... why didn't you stop her?" Ron said.
"It's not my fault, I was in my own dormitory finishing homework and went to her dorm to ask for help and found the note on the ground," Ginny snapped.
"Well according to this... she's in the forest," Harry said.
"Uh... right," Ron nodded as Harry rolled his eyes. "Ginny, you stay here if she comes back. C'mon Harry."
"Why do I have to stay behind," Ginny frowned.
"Because you're the youngest," Ron hissed as he ran up the stairs to the boys' dormitory to fetch Harry's invisibility cloak.
"Sorry," Harry said to her as he kissed her on the cheek.
"Be careful..." Ginny mumbled. Ron came back as Harry smiled slightly at her as he and Ron threw on their coats before putting the invisibility cloak over their heads.
"We'll be right back..." Harry said as he gulped. "Hopefully." He and Ron ran out of the common room to the forest with their wands lighting the way.
"All we have to do, it follow her footprints and it should lead us...to...her, oh no." Harry exclaimed as he quickly stopped in his place.
"What Harry?" Ron asked.
"The footprints...stop... and there's a body imprint in the snow," Harry said.
"Arg... Hermione, why'd you stop and make a snow angel," Ron scowled.
"I don't think she was making snow angels, mate. Look.." he pointed to another spot on the ground and gulped again. "It... it looks like she was... dragged and then... her and the other person... disappeared."
"How could they have disappeared?"
"They could have apparated," Harry suggested.
Ron turned towards him. "Harry, people can't apparate on the grounds of Hog..." he stopped when he saw Harry raise an eyebrow at him. "Sorry... habit."
"...Right," Harry murmured.
"Wait... what's that?" Ron said quickly, pointing to a spot on the ground. Ron bent down and picked up a little piece of paper and read it out loud. "If you want to see your friend again... go to the shrieking shack or else."
Ron looked over at Harry with a horrified face. "Hermione..." he choked out with a shaky voice.
((Woo hoo! This chapter done! That means only two more chappies to go *sigh* I want to make it clear that yes... they will get together in the end and once again I say, no the rose given at Christmas is not the red rose the title is named after. Please Read and Review!
((Some from chapters 18 and 19 (Some from chapter 18 have been posted in chapter 19 ))
Len (From chapter 18): Thank you!
Straycat: (From chapter 18) The next two chapters after this should be very long... I think, I haven't typed them out yet but I'm pretty sure they will be. Thank ya!
Magical*Me: Believe me, there's another thing in my story in the next chapter that was completely destroyed by the fifth book ^_^ Hmmm... I thought I saw bunk beds... *Goes to check Harry Potter 1-5* *Runs back* What the heck are poster beds then? *Shrugs* Anyway... uh... then they suddenly brought in bunk beds...yeah *nods* that's it... Thanks for reviewing.
Julie: She cannot kill off Ron. That would be a sin... wait... *looks at past chapters in my story* Uh... oops. But anyway, yeah, she can't kill off him. At the end of book seven J.K. Rowling says that she's going to put what they're doing after Hogwarts and it better say something like: Ron and Hermione end up getting married and living happily ever after and didn't die until they were very very old! Thanks for reviewing.
N/A: True, She probably is going to kill off a few more characters just hopefully none that we all really care about *cough* Sirius *cough* And yeah, hopefully before the 7th book they'll get together ^_^
Muykiay: Ditto for me, when I heard that there was going to be a big death I could've bet all that I had it was Hagrid, but nope, she had to take the predictable and make it the unpredictable. That's J.K Rowling for you. Keep reviewing!
Crazy4RonW: Thank you!
HerMioNe WeaSlEy: I actually didn't think that me killing Ron would actually make people that mad ^_^ lol, but I guess if I was reading it I would be mad also. I might make a sequel after this, if enough people told me to, but I wasn't really planning on it. I am going to do a R/Hr humor and romance fic that I will be posting up next week and I was going to start a story for after the actual 5th book. But I dunno, I might to a sequel to this if enough people tell me to.
"Hermione, you should really eat something... you haven't eaten anything all day," Harry murmured to her. December had ended quickly and the New Year had begun again. Break was finally over and classes had begun again.
"I'm not hungry," she replied back. She had been thinking about the Phantom's letter constantly now that Valentines Day was only about a month away.
Ron frowned at her. "C'mon 'Mione... you need to eat something. At least try some of this ham, it's really good." He said as he picked up the platter that had the ham on it and began waving it in front of her face.
Unexpectedly, a large brown barn owl flew into the Great Hall, dropping a small piece of paper right onto the ham.
"Bit late for mail, isn't it?" Ginny said as she looked up at the barn owl as it swooped out the window.
"Well... that was... bizarre," Ron mumbled also looking at the owl.
Hermione picked up the note. "It's to me..." she said as she carefully opened it. "That's odd..." she said as she examined the letter that said: - H
"Odd indeed," Ginny said, looking over her shoulder at the note. Hermione flipped the parchment around and saw sloppily scrawled onto the paper: Phantom.
"And so the phantom strikes again," Harry said, raising one eyebrow at Ron who turned severely red.
~*~*~*~*~
Ron pulled Harry into the boys' dormitory after dinner by the sleeve. "How long have you known?" He panted.
"What have I known?"" Harry replied.
"You know what I mean!" Ron yelled.
Harry grinned. "Oh, Ginny told me," he replied simply.
"How the bloody 'ell does she know?"
"Hermione told her about a..." Harry held up his fingers and did quotations " 'Masked Phantom' and I guess she supposedly described it as some mask that Fred and George own," he shrugged.
"Just great!" He moaned as he fell backwards onto his bed. "You didn't tell Hermione though, did you?" He asked in a panicky voice.
"No..."
"Good," Ron sighed.
"She wouldn't listen."
"Harry!" Ron yelled as he threw a pillow and Harry's head.
"Don't worry... Ginny and me agreed to stay out of it," He grinned. "So when are you going to send the next letter?"
"I don't know... probably a month or something," he replied, sighing heavily.
"Why are you waiting so long?"
"Cause the next ones the end of the riddle..." he replied.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that if she figures out the first two clues she'll know what'd come next."
"Wait...that's right! Ginny told me that Hermione showed her that you sent her a letter with an "eye" on it... You meant "I" not "Eye" Then the -H..." Harry paused for a long moment. "You... you offered her the ham... to her on purpose?" Ron nodded as Harry beamed.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Hermione walked into the girls' dormitory with an armful of books. She set her books on her bed and looked through them. Panic flooded through her mind. "Oh no!" She cried. "I left my journal in the common room again!" She was about to dart down the stairs when she saw a black owl perched on the window sill with a letter in it's beak. She cautiously walked towards it as it dropped the letter on the ground. She bent down and picked it up.
The owl flashed its eyes maliciously before spreading it's wings and flying out the window again. The letter had her name on it, neatly printed with black ink. She tore it open and read:
Dearest Hermione,
A darkened sky is almost near
My life without you is what I fear
Meet me in the Forbidden Forest
At exactly 10:00 sharp.
Phantom.
Hermione smiled brightly and threw the note on the ground hastily, completely forgetting about her journal. "Wait a second..." she looked at her watch. "It's 9:45!" she yelled as she slapped her forehead. She threw her coat over her homemade Weasley sweater that she was wearing and dashed down the stairs and quietly crept out of the common room that was nearly empty to the forest.
Ron walked down to the common room just as Hermione had left and sat down on one of the puffy chairs near the fireplace. He quickly sat up and turned around to the couch. A red leather bound book was sitting neatly on the chair. He recognized it once he saw the gold border.
"Hermione shouldn't be letting this lie around." He said as he picked it up off of the chair and sat down. He looked around deviously to see if anyone was watching him. -I know it's wrong to snoop, but I just want to read the page I started last time- he said in his mind. He quickly flipped through the pages until he recognized it as the one he was reading before.
Dear Journal,
Ever since I came back to Hogwarts, it feels like I don't belong here anymore. Now I sort of wish that I hadn't broken up with Victor. I know it's a silly thought but at least he had feelings for me. Ron just doesn't understand how much he actually means to me. But what's the use, he's been acting coldly to me since at least last year. It's just driving me mental how he just sees me as another one of the guys. I hope he'll understand someday, before it's too late that I do truly love him.
Hermione
Ron froze and gaped at the journal and re-read it at least eight times before Harry walked down into the common room. "What cha doing, mate?" Harry asked as he walked towards him. Ron hid Hermione's journal behind his back.
"Um, nothing... just uh... watching the fire burn," Ron sputtered. Harry raised an eyebrow as if he was going to say something else, but instead he looked over at Ginny who was just walking down from the girls' dormitory.
"Hello Harry, Ron," she said as she plopped down on the couch next to them with a letter in her hand that she began to read through. Her head shot back up as her eyes flashed over at Ron.
"RON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!" she yelled.
"Didn't mum tell explain that to you? You see, when a woman and a man love each other very much..." Ron began but was stopped by Ginny grabbing a pillow and throwing it at Ron's head. Ron just merely ducked and it hit Harry in the face instead.
"That's not what I meant stupid!" She bit her lip and looked over at Harry. "Oh... sorry Harry."
"What is with you Weasleys and throwing pillows?" Harry muttered. Ron laughed and looked back at Ginny.
"What DO you mean then?" he asked.
"Why aren't you with Hermione?" she asked.
"I... uh... didn't know I was supposed to be," he shrugged.
"But the letter..."
"What letter?" Ron asked with a furrowed brow.
"The letter you sent..."
"I didn't send a letter to anyone," Ron replied.
"But you're the phantom, right?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah... so. What's this about?"
"This!" She shoved the letter in his face and he quickly read through it.
"I didn't send this," he said with a puzzled expression.
"Then... who did? And where is Hermione?"
-Meanwhile-
Hermione clambered through the snow covered forest and clutched on tightly to her cloak. "Hello?" she called out. "Anyone here?" She heard a muffled eerie cackle and gulped.
"I have been waiting for you," sad a small squeaky voice as dark figure walked towards her. The person had a large cloak with a hood that covered their face.
"Who... who are you?" she asked shivering as she stepped back.
The person lowered their hood to reveal their rat-like features with a bald spot on their head.
"Wo...Wormtail?" She gasped, backing up farther. "You're the phantom?" Hermione looked as though she was going to be sick.
"No of course not, you see," but it was too late for him to explain. Hermione had already fainted onto the snow covered ground.
"Well that was easier then I thought," Wormtail shrugged and pulled out a piece of paper and casually threw it on the ground. He grabbed her wrists and pulled her deeper into the forest.
-Meanwhile-
"Well, you must have seen her leave the dormitory... why didn't you stop her?" Ron said.
"It's not my fault, I was in my own dormitory finishing homework and went to her dorm to ask for help and found the note on the ground," Ginny snapped.
"Well according to this... she's in the forest," Harry said.
"Uh... right," Ron nodded as Harry rolled his eyes. "Ginny, you stay here if she comes back. C'mon Harry."
"Why do I have to stay behind," Ginny frowned.
"Because you're the youngest," Ron hissed as he ran up the stairs to the boys' dormitory to fetch Harry's invisibility cloak.
"Sorry," Harry said to her as he kissed her on the cheek.
"Be careful..." Ginny mumbled. Ron came back as Harry smiled slightly at her as he and Ron threw on their coats before putting the invisibility cloak over their heads.
"We'll be right back..." Harry said as he gulped. "Hopefully." He and Ron ran out of the common room to the forest with their wands lighting the way.
"All we have to do, it follow her footprints and it should lead us...to...her, oh no." Harry exclaimed as he quickly stopped in his place.
"What Harry?" Ron asked.
"The footprints...stop... and there's a body imprint in the snow," Harry said.
"Arg... Hermione, why'd you stop and make a snow angel," Ron scowled.
"I don't think she was making snow angels, mate. Look.." he pointed to another spot on the ground and gulped again. "It... it looks like she was... dragged and then... her and the other person... disappeared."
"How could they have disappeared?"
"They could have apparated," Harry suggested.
Ron turned towards him. "Harry, people can't apparate on the grounds of Hog..." he stopped when he saw Harry raise an eyebrow at him. "Sorry... habit."
"...Right," Harry murmured.
"Wait... what's that?" Ron said quickly, pointing to a spot on the ground. Ron bent down and picked up a little piece of paper and read it out loud. "If you want to see your friend again... go to the shrieking shack or else."
Ron looked over at Harry with a horrified face. "Hermione..." he choked out with a shaky voice.
((Woo hoo! This chapter done! That means only two more chappies to go *sigh* I want to make it clear that yes... they will get together in the end and once again I say, no the rose given at Christmas is not the red rose the title is named after. Please Read and Review!
((Some from chapters 18 and 19 (Some from chapter 18 have been posted in chapter 19 ))
Len (From chapter 18): Thank you!
Straycat: (From chapter 18) The next two chapters after this should be very long... I think, I haven't typed them out yet but I'm pretty sure they will be. Thank ya!
Magical*Me: Believe me, there's another thing in my story in the next chapter that was completely destroyed by the fifth book ^_^ Hmmm... I thought I saw bunk beds... *Goes to check Harry Potter 1-5* *Runs back* What the heck are poster beds then? *Shrugs* Anyway... uh... then they suddenly brought in bunk beds...yeah *nods* that's it... Thanks for reviewing.
Julie: She cannot kill off Ron. That would be a sin... wait... *looks at past chapters in my story* Uh... oops. But anyway, yeah, she can't kill off him. At the end of book seven J.K. Rowling says that she's going to put what they're doing after Hogwarts and it better say something like: Ron and Hermione end up getting married and living happily ever after and didn't die until they were very very old! Thanks for reviewing.
N/A: True, She probably is going to kill off a few more characters just hopefully none that we all really care about *cough* Sirius *cough* And yeah, hopefully before the 7th book they'll get together ^_^
Muykiay: Ditto for me, when I heard that there was going to be a big death I could've bet all that I had it was Hagrid, but nope, she had to take the predictable and make it the unpredictable. That's J.K Rowling for you. Keep reviewing!
Crazy4RonW: Thank you!
HerMioNe WeaSlEy: I actually didn't think that me killing Ron would actually make people that mad ^_^ lol, but I guess if I was reading it I would be mad also. I might make a sequel after this, if enough people told me to, but I wasn't really planning on it. I am going to do a R/Hr humor and romance fic that I will be posting up next week and I was going to start a story for after the actual 5th book. But I dunno, I might to a sequel to this if enough people tell me to.
