A/N: So glad you guys are enjoying this! Thanks!!!
Disclaimer: None of these characters
are mine.
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Three days later, Professor Lupin still hadn't returned to class. Unfortunately for all of the Gryffindors, Snape had taken over the lessons again temporarily, as he had done briefly during their third year. Of course, with Snape teaching the class, Ron and Harry had both chosen to skive off, much to Hermione's scolding.
"You can't let him distract you from your learning," she'd said smartly while they were walking out of the Great Hall after lunch. The seventh year Gryffindors had just gotten out of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Fred had told him that Snape was still the teacher. And since they were scheduled for that class immediately following lunch, Ron and Harry had informed Hermione that they weren't going.
"Distract us from our learning?" Ron asked carefully. "How is it possible that he won't when he's the one teaching the class?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter. The O.W.L.s are coming up soon, and we need all of the practice we can get. It doesn't matter who's teaching the class."
"Yes, it does," Harry intervened. "It's bad enough that we have to sit through Potions, I'm definitely not taking Snape twice in one day."
"Fine," she said hotly. "But don't expect me to lie for you."
Ron and Harry rolled their own eyes in perfect unison.
Hermione had given a very loud sigh and stalked off in the direction of the Defense classroom without her best friends.
Approximately fifteen minutes after the class was scheduled to start, Ron and Harry were hiding in their dormitory, playing a game of Snap on Harry's bed. They weren't particularly paying any attention to the game; they were mostly just throwing random cards into the pile mindlessly. Every now and then, a minor explosion would occur, but nothing too spectacular was happening, so it wasn't very attention-worthy.
"The full moon was four nights ago," Ron observed carelessly. "He should be better by now."
They'd long since come to the assumption that Lupin was out because of his "condition," but Ron was right, it had been a full four nights before. Harry shrugged. "Maybe Snape botched his potion on purpose."
"Maybe," Ron agreed, throwing a particularly dangerous card into the pile. "How much trouble do you think we'll get in for skipping?"
Harry shrugged again. "Who cares?"
"My mum'll kill me if she gets an owl," he said almost wistfully. "Do you think Snape'll tell Dumbledore?"
"Probably."
"Yeah,"
Ron went on, tossing a few more cards into the center. "And Lupin will probably be really pissed,
too."
Once again, Harry just shrugged.
"So? I don't care if he is."
Ron stopped momentarily and just looked at the other boy. Harry was staring at the cards in his hand, but it was obvious that he really wasn't looking at anything. Ron frowned slightly and looked at his own cards, anything to distract him from the moping miserable person that was his best friend.
Ever since Snape had said those awful things about his parents, Harry had been completely cynical about any and everything. Ron hadn't been able to find Harry at all that night, and it wasn't until the next morning at breakfast that he first saw him again. Harry had looked tired and disoriented, as if he hadn't slept all night. It had been obvious that he didn't want to answer any questions, so Ron hadn't asked him any. Surprisingly enough, Hermione hadn't, either; Ron was thankful for this since he knew better than anyone that Hermione had a tendency to be a bit pushy when she wanted to get some information. Ron, though, assumed that Harry would talk about it when he wanted to, and until then, it was probably better just to pretend as if nothing had happened.
While Harry was missing that day, Ron and Hermione had sought out Professor McGonagall and told her all about Hermione's vision. She had watched them silently, nodding here and there to show her understanding. After the story had been told, she'd simply nodded once more and said, "Mr. Weasley, I suggest that you write home to your parents and let them know the situation. If Miss Granger's vision is correct, it is very likely that there will be something of importance occurring at your home, and it is only fair to let your parents know in advance. As far as what we will do here, I will alert the Headmaster and tell him the details of the vision. In the meantime, though, I suggest that the two of you try your best to behave as normally as possible. I would also like to request that you do not let anyone else in on what you Saw; this does include your other siblings, Mr. Weasley." And that had been it. Ron had done as he was told and written home to his mum and dad. They hadn't yet sent a reply, but Ron knew it took at least a day's travel each way, so he wasn't really expecting anything back this quickly.
The boys continued to play in silence until a very sharp knock on their door jerked both of them to instant attention. They glanced at each other nervously, and Harry got up and immediately threw open his trunk, grabbing the Invisibility Cloak and throwing it over both Ron and himself. They crouched into the small opening between their beds and sat wordlessly for several more seconds before another loud knock sounded. When no response was given, the knocker obviously decided it was safe to enter, and the door flew open. At first, Ron wondered if a ghost had been pounding on the door, as no one was visible. A second later, though, a head appeared, a very familiar head. And a moment after that, an Invisibility Cloak was peeled off, revealing the last person either Ron or Harry wanted to see in the dormitory.
Draco Malfoy stepped away from the dropped Cloak and looked around the circular room, his signature smirk right in place on his pale face.
Ron and Harry looked at each other with identical looks of shock. Then Ron made a move to get up and beat the living shit out of the Slytherin, but Harry grabbed his arm and shook his head frantically, halting him in mid-stand. Reluctantly, Ron settled back to his knees and watched as Malfoy stopped glancing around and set his eyes on Harry's bed.
It was obvious that it was Harry's bed because of the slightly beaten up Firebolt standing beside the nightstand. Malfoy walked over to the four poster and took in the open curtains and half-played game of Snap lying on the bed. His eyes then fell on the still-open trunk, which Harry had thrown open moments before, and a look of panic flickered just briefly across his face. He glanced all around him before obviously deciding that no one was in the room. With that, he crept closer and dropped to his knees just inches away from where Harry himself sat, hidden by the Invisibility Cloak.
With
a look of pure glee, he started rummaging through the open trunk, pulling out
various items, socks, school shirts, schoolbooks, extra quills. Both of the Gryffindors held their breath
when he pulled out the Marauder's Map, but he didn't give it a second glance,
obviously assuming that it was nothing more than a spare piece of
parchment.
"Damn," Malfoy muttered to himself as he gave up on the trunk and halfway threw the things back into the trunk, paying no attention to the order or anything of the such. He stood up and pulled open the drawers on the nightstand, looking through them but obviously not finding whatever he was looking for. His eyes fell momentarily on the Firebolt, and a look of pure menace took him over. He fingered the broomstick, and Harry almost thought he was going to break it just to be spiteful; it was obvious that the idea was also occurring to Malfoy. However, he finally left it alone and once again looked around the room.
He went in the opposite direction of where the boys were sitting, glancing at trunks and naming off the occupants of the beds. "Finnigan... Thomas... Longbottom..." He stopped after making a circle and glanced at the final trunk, a creepy smile on his face. "Weasley."
Ron watched with a hard glare as Malfoy went through the same drill on his things as he had on Harry's. He pulled the trunk out from under the bed and popped the latch, digging through layers of clothes and supplies. When he didn't find anything, he didn't even bother putting the things back. He just swore under his breath and jerked open the nightstand drawer. Immediately, though, his swearing stopped, and a gleeful look covered his pointed face. He grabbed an envelope from the top of the drawer, which contained a letter that Ron's mum had sent the week before. He turned it over and scanned the back of the envelope for something before grinning once more and tucking the letter into his pocket. Ron was confused at first; there was nothing written on the back of the envelope other than the return address.
The address of his home...
Ron looked instantly at Harry, who looked just as dumbstruck as Ron felt. They watched in silence as Malfoy gathered up his Invisibility Cloak and exited the room, not bothering to put it back into proper order. Without even questioning each other, the other two boys got up under their own Invisibility Cloak and followed him. He went down the stairs, but instead of entering the Common Room, he turned up another set of stairs, the set which led to the girls' side of Gryffindor Tower. He stopped on the floor outside of the door marked Fifth Years, and he once again knocked loudly. Ron and Harry watched from behind, realizing that he was knocking for the sole purpose of seeing if anyone happened to be inside. If they were in the room, by chance, he would obviously just stay hidden. No one answered the door, though, as all the rest of the Gryffindors were in class. Without bothering to knock a second time, Malfoy turned the knob and entered the room, Ron and Harry skulking closely behind him.
There were only three beds in this room, and it wasn't difficult to distinguish whose was whose. One bed was covered by an intricately stitched and beaded blanket, obviously of authentic Indian make and very obviously Parvati's; the next bed was piled with various stuffed animals, and it was no secret that Lavender was still quite attached the girlish things of her childhood; and the last bed was just as distinguishable as the others, a stack of books standing in front of it and a rather large book left wide open on top of the bed.
It was the last bed that Malfoy went to, dropping his Invisibility Cloak on the way and looking as if he'd just won the lottery.
"Granger, Granger, Granger..." he mumbled under his breath. "What do you have hidden in here?"
If looks could kill, Malfoy would have been dead from the death glare Ron was shooting him by this time. Without a outward care in the world, though, Malfoy dropped to his knees beside Hermione's bed and reached under for her trunk. Hermione, who was very organized and precise, had all of her things packed away neatly inside of her trunk, but it didn't take long for Malfoy to completely destroy her system, flinging random clothing to the floor in what now looked like a furious mission to find something.
When whatever he was looking for was obviously not in her trunk, he shoved it away and got to his feet, heading straight for her own nightstand.
"Jackpot," he muttered, pulling out what was also obviously a letter. "1114 Henley Avenue. Suffolk, London."
Ron and Harry both stole panicked glances at each other before turning back to see what else the intruder was planning. To their surprise, Malfoy tucked the letter into his pocket and went straight back to exploring her drawers. "Wicked," he muttered, extracting a very familiar looking leather book. It was the journal Ron had given her for Christmas that year. "What dirty little secrets does Hogwarts' prized pupil have?"
At this point, Ron made a serious move to pummel Malfoy, but once again, Harry held him back. "Don't," he hissed quietly while shaking his head rapidly.
Malfoy opened the journal and frowned momentarily before smirking again. "Bitchy little know-it-all probably thinks she's the only one who knows how to work a secrecy charm." Ron clenched his fist in order to refrain from attacking Malfoy. He watched as the other boy pulled out his wand and tapped the journal, muttering several unfamiliar Latin terms. When nothing happened, Malfoy rolled his eyes and tossed the book back into the drawer. "Girls always have diaries," he said mockingly. "Should have known Granger wasn't enough of a real girl to actually write in one."
With that, he turned around, picked up his Invisibility Cloak, and marched out of the dormitory, down the stairs, and through the Portrait Hole, leaving Ron and Harry alone in the Common Room.
"I'm going to kill him!" Ron said venomously as he shrugged the Cloak away and glared at the now closed painting.
"What are we going to do?" Harry asked, a slight hint of worry evident in his tone.
"First I'm going to beat the shit out of him, then I'm going to pull his fingernails out, and then I'm going to yank the balls off of him! If the damn wanker has any!" Ron said, apparently much more furious that Malfoy had dared to intrude on Hermione's space than he was over the fact that Malfoy had also done the same to him and to Harry.
"I mean
seriously," Harry said sternly.
"I am being serious!"
"Ron, shut up," Harry said briskly. "Now, do you think we should tell someone?"
"Of course we should! Malfoy broke into our rooms, went through our things, and even stole some of our personal property!"
"But maybe we should just keep quiet."
"What?" Ron was positive that Harry had lost his mind. "Then the bastard will just get away with it!"
"Yeah, but if we tell, we probably won't be allowed to leave for Easter."
"Why shouldn't we be allowed to go home for Easter?"
"Ron,
Malfoy was looking for addresses, which probably means his dad told him
to find out where we all lived."
Ron wasn't stupid; he knew exactly why Lucius Malfoy would want to know where
they all resided, and it wasn't so that he could join their families for
tea. But still...
"Don't
you think it's more dangerous not to tell?" Ron asked cautiously.
Harry scowled slightly. "Look. If they want to do something, they're going
to do it. Whether we're there or not. You want to see Hope, don't you?"
"Of course I do, but-"
"Well, you won't get to if we tell anyone."
Ron, being the non-stupid person that he was, understood perfectly. Harry couldn't wait to see Gia, and he apparently didn't care how dangerous or risky it would be. He was obviously willing to take whatever chances he had to in order to see her. Even if it was pretty thick.
"Are we at least going to tell Hermione?" Ron asked, giving into Harry without verbally conceding.
But Harry just shook his head. "If we tell her, she's going to tell a teacher. You know she will."
"Well, she is the smart one..." Ron pointed out.
Harry
rolled his eyes. "Just don't,
okay? We can keep an eye on Malfoy and
make sure he doesn't look like he's up to anything particularly rotten."
"How can we keep an eye on him when he's got an Invisibility Cloak?" Ron asked pointedly. "And anyway, I wonder how long he's had that thing."
Harry shrugged. "I dunno. But I'm sure he's not stupid enough to go disappearing under it all the time."
This was true. Malfoy probably had a whole entourage of people watching his every move, so it wasn't very likely that he would go prancing around in an Invisibility Cloak very often.
"Fine," Ron said, exasperated. "But I am writing home and telling Mum and Dad to be careful. And I'm going to tell Hermione to write to her parents, too."
Harry looked just the tiniest bit spiteful. "I would write to the Dursleys," he said sarcastically, "but they might find out where the Death Eaters meet and join them, just to make sure I don't have to bother them this summer."
Ron looked quickly to the wall. He hated when Harry got like that, mostly because he didn't know how to handle him. It wasn't as if he could say 'I understand' and be telling the truth because he didn't understand. He still had both of his parents; he wasn't an orphan who was being raised by monsters; and he wasn't the Boy Who Lived, a fifteen year old who was expected to save the world.
As jealous as he sometimes got of Harry, he really didn't envy him at all.
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Another
short chapter, but it's out there fast!
I'm trying to go as quickly as possible because my original intention
was to finish this before Order of the Phoenix came out, but I don't
know if it's going to happen. I will
try, though. I will try my hardest.
Please review!!!
