CHAPTER 16

AND AGAIN

''Ron.......Ron.....STOP IT RON!'' Hermione squealed as she wandered around the coridors of Hogwarts, hand in hand with Ron Weasley, who was getting a bit too frisky for her liking.

''Awww come on Mione, just one kiss, we've been walking around here for over two hours nothing is going to happen.'' Ron whined, he wasn't used to being turned down by Hermione

''No Ron, we've got a job to do, and I intend to do it well. We have to protect the students.''

''Fine,'' he said sulkily, although he knew she was right.

''Anyway, we have the rest of the night together, we only have to patrol until midnight.'' Hermione purred seductively as she led him down one of the many staircases in Hogwarts, to check the third floor for the third time that night.

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At breakfast the next day neither Ron or Hermione weren't very alert as they'd spent half of the night wandering around the entire castle, up and down it's many staircase, in and out of the empty classrooms checking for anything unusual, which considering they were at Hogwarts was very likely, the whole castle was unusual. They had walked passed the Hospital wing several times during the night, hearing muffled voices coming from within, one belonged to Dumbledore Hermione was sure and the other Ron thought belonged to Proffessor Snape, there was no mistaking those silky tones. Hermione noticed that there was a strange, unearthly glow shining through the window in the door, she just supposed it was the light from a spell that Dumbledore had been using to try and wake the charmed girl. No news had yet been given to the students at Hogwarts about the attacks, anyone who had enquired about Kim Monietta had just been informed that she had to go home to take care of her sick grandmother and that she would be back shortly.

Harry had schedueled the next DA meeting for Thursday evening, and the Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs for Saturday morning at ten o'clock sharp, all existing team members were expected to be there on time and any people trying out also had to be there prefferably early, Harry couldn't tolerate lateness for any team member.

Wednesday was a good day for Ron, actually it was one of his favourites, not only did he have Magical Maintanence but he had Defence Against the Dark Arts as well, a class that had fast become his favourite class ever, not since Lupin's days as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher did Ron ever look forward to that lesson so much, it also helped that Professor Golding was very attractive, with her intense purple eyes, and long raven black hair. Even though Ron was hopelessly devoted to Hermione the one and only love of his life, he couldn't help but admire the older witches good looks.

That day in Magical Maintanence with Nick the nine pupils learned how to fix a broken wand, much to Ron's embarassment Harry told the whole class about the incident in second year when Ron had broken his wand and tried to fix it with sellotape, and of course that story led on to the now famous slug story. Ron had actually blushed when Harry reminded him that the only reason he had ended up belching up slugs was when Malfoy had insulted Hermione, it was at that moment when Ron realised that he had had feelings for Hermione for longer than even he remembered.



Ginny stood quietly at her table in Herbology, carefully tending to a Padogrib plant, with her partner Colin Creevy, they had been firm friends ever since Ginny's second year and were partners in all of the classes that they had together. Colin had befriended Ginny in their second year after Ginny's terrible, lonely first year, and since then they had been good friends, in fact for a while he was Ginny's only friend. Mrs Weasley had often joked that they were like a much quieter version of Fred and George. Inseperable. Ginny was carefully trying to coax the Padogrib to swallow the large drops of thick yellow liquid that she was trying to squirt into the wide pink flowers that bloomed all over the plant. It sounded like an easy job when Proffessor Sprout had assigned the task to the class, but it seemed that not everyone was having as much luck as Ginny with their Padogribs. Ginny giggled as she saw Luna's Padogrib squirt the yellow potion back into her face, causing a bright pink flower to sprout up out of the top of her head. Proffessor Sprout noticing the problem, strode confidently over to Luna, wand in hand ready to remove the offending flower, but Luna would not allow it she said it looked pretty and persuaded Proffessor Sprout to leave it there.

''Gin?'' Colin whispered so as not to be overheard by the class.

''Yeah.'' she replied dreamily, she had been having one of her favourite fantasies about Harry, one that involved her and him riding through a valley on his broomstick, then getting off a having a romantic, candlelit dinner in a little romantic restaurant, where he would proclaim his undying love for her.

''How are things with you and Harry?'' Colin asked, eager for news on his best friend and his idol.

''Great thanks Col, things are just, just great.'' she sighed at a loss for a better word, she hadn't told anyone about the other night with Harry, apart from Colin, he was the only person she trusted enough to talk to about it. Even though she did trust Hermione, she knew that the news would somehow reach Ron and she didn't need him butting in with his over-protective brother routine, it had been bad enough when she was dating Micheal, she didn't need all that again, all the murderous glares at her boyfriend, the comments like you can do better Gin, or does dad know. No thanks she'd rather keep it to herself, well herself, Colin and Harry obviously.

''Do you love him?'' Colin asked excitedly, he knew Ginny had had a crush on Harry ever since she first laid eyes on him.

''Yeah, I do.'' she replied dreamily, daydream Harry had just presented her with a sparkling diamond engagement ring. ''I really do.''

''Awww that's so sweet.'' Colin asked while rolling his eyes. ''Have you told him yet?''

''No, I want him to say it to me first.'' Ginny insisted, she was one of those girls who had romantic ideas about everything, she even knew what type of wedding dress she was going to wear when she got married. She had imagined Harry declaring his love for her over and over again and in none of those daydreams did she say it to him first. ''Anyway, have you told that Ravenclaw of your more than friendly feelings yet?'' Ginny teased, she knew that Colin had a crush on a Ravenclaw in their Herbology clas and she would ask him about it all the time.

''No, you know I haven't worked up the courage to do anything about it yet.'' He answered sadly. ''Now shut up before anyone hears you.'' Colin warned, giving Ginny a murderous glare, that only caused her to burst into a fit of hysterics.

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ATTACK ON PUREBLOOD TWINS

Late last night at Morgans Hotel in London, two pureblood twins were attacked in their sleep. They were staying at the five star hotel with their mother, famous opera singer, Winifred Duvall. The twins were found, by their mother who had been performing live last night at the Misellton Hall in the centre of London. Miss Duvall had gone up the their room to kiss them goodnight, when she realissed they had been attacked in their sleep.

When asked for a quote Miss Duvall said, ''I can't believe it, who would want to attack two little six year olds, they are the most precious things in my life, I can't believe anyone would want to hurt them.'' The charm that has been placed upon both children has not yet been broken, and is thought to be a very powerful, ancient dark curse, used last over five thousand years ago by the Dark Ancient Egyptian wizards.

The cuse has caused both children to fall into a fit of deep sleep, Healers from St Mungo'ss have placed monitoring charm on both children and although thee how tht ainfcat both children are in perfect health, there are no obvious signs of life. The children do'nt appear to be breathing although we are ure that oxygen is in fact being taken into their bodies. Most unusual of all though is the fact that both children have been encased in a bubble that appears to be filled with some sort of liquid. This bubble cannot be burst and none of the healers spells have been able to penetrate it.

The children are now in St Mugo's hospital, where they will be forced to remain, until the spell can be broken, and now the question left on everyone's lips is why were these innocent children attacked, was it the random act of some psychopathic Death Eater, or were they targetted by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? No-one knows the answers to these questions but rumour is that there has been a similar attack in Hogwarts school on one of its second year students, who is also pureblood. This leads this reporter to believe that there is a reason that these children are being attacked and that there is a connection between the two attacks, the only question is why were they attacked.

Miranda Abbleby (Daily Prophet)

''Oh my God there's been another attack!'' Hermione whispered urgently into Ron's ear at breakfast the next morning in the Great Hall, as she looked at the front page of the Daily Prophet that she had delivered to her every morning. ''Look here on the front page, there's a picture too.'' Hermione hissed as she stared down onto the paper, looking at the twins that were trapped inside bubbles, their faces looking ghostly pale, and their hair floating up around their faces in an eerie.

''Oh No.'' Ron gasped as he read through the arcticle, ''that must be what has happened to Kim Monietta.'' Ron guessed. ''Dumbledore will have to say something now.'' And sure enough Dumbledore had stood up and cleared his throat ready to address his pupils about the terrible events reported in the newspaper.

''It has come to my attention that there is an arcticle in this mornings Daily Prophet concerning the attack on two children, and a student from Hogwarts. It pains me to say this but the arcticle is infact accurate. The student from Hogwarts is Kim Monietta, she was attacked a few days ago, that is why I have asked the prefects from each of the four houses to start patrolling the school at nights. Nobody knows exactly why these students were targetted but I can safely inform you all that it is obvious who is behind all of this. Now I don't yet know Voldemorts reasons for these attacks, but I can assure you that there is a reason, Voldemort does not act without a purpose, but I can assure you that we are doing everything in our power to try and break the powerful charms that have been placed upon Miss Monietta and on Kimberly and Kane Duvall.'' Dumbledore stopped, and looked around at the shocked faces in the Great Hall before him. His eyes glazed with a steely resolution he continued. ''Now I want all of you to be careful, no-one is allowed out of the common rooms after nine o'clock at night, apart from the prefects who will be patrolling the school for your own safety. I would also like to remind you all to be alert and don't go wandering around outside of the catle unaccompanied. Thank you.'' Dumbledore sat down and looked once again around the Great Hall at the faces of his many students, who were looking at each other with a mixture of shock, disbelief and fear. He would have to find a counter curse soon, but how when he had never even heard of a curse that had the effects that this one had, it was going to take forever to plough through every single book in the library to find the correct curse. Then it wouldn't even be guarenteed that there would be a counter curse.

Harry, Ron and Hermione walked to their Tranfiguration class, noticing along the way the subdued students in the corridors, the absence of the friendly chatter and the laughter. Harry was reminded of their second year at school when all students had to be accompanied to all their lesson by teachers for fear of being killed by a giant Basilisk that was travelling around the school in the pipes. After sitting through an hour of Transfiguration with Mcgonagall, who had them all trying to turn themselves into inanimate objects, resulting in Neville ending up as half boy half chair, and Ron having leaves sprouting out of his arms after trying to turn himself into a potted plant. Hermione was the only student who managed to turn herself succesfully into a book, of all things by the end of the lesson and she was looking rather pleaed with herself as they walked to their next lesson.

''Can you believe there was another attack?'' Harry asked, sick of listening to Hermione tell him where he'd gone wrong in the lesson. The change of subject worked perfectly and Hermione stopped mid-lecture to answer him.

''No I know. Good job there is another DA meeting tonight.'' she replied earnestly.

''Yeah.'' Ron agreed. ''To be honest with you this is getting weird isn't it? I mean all of the people who have been attacked have been pureblood children.''

''Yeah,'' Harry replied. ''I've been wondering about that too, Voldemort usually goes for muggle born's, never purebloods. Although I don't know what his problem is anyway his father was a muggle.''

''Really?'' Hermione asked, sounding shocked. ''Then why does he despise all muggleborns?''

''I don't know.'' Harry answered truthfully. ''I really don't.''

''Don't worry babe, I'll protect you.'' Ron said as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

''Well I think I'm the one who should be protecting you, seeing as only purebloods are being targetted. I'll be fine, you're the one who needs to worry.'' Hermione said as she pulled away from Ron and walked into the Charms class with Harry laughing, leaving Ron standing outside with his mouth hanging open. He hadn't thought of it like that.

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The DA meeting that night was one of the longest that they had ever had and all of the members successfully learned two new defensive spells, specially given to them by Proffesssor Golding. First of all they learned 'slugerate' a spell that slowed everyone in the surrounding area down apart from the caster, who would them be able to dodge spells early and also fire spells at attackers who wouldn't be able to move out of the way in time. This spell took most of the lesson to master as everyone was moving incredibly slowly, then to finish off the lesson, they learnt a simple spell 'kaliedorate' that caused a wall of colours and sparkles that would temporarily dazzle an attacker so that you can escape or if escape is impossible, then fire an attack back at them to imobilise them. By the end of the lesson, everyone was tired and had lingering sparkles flashing in front of their eyes, their catalouge of spells was increasing rapidly and everyone left the classsroom feeling more confident and secure than they had when they had entered.

Saturday morning came and Harry and Ron walked down to the Quidditch pitch with the only other existing team member Josh, who had joined the team in the previous year. They walked down in relative silence, with their brooms in their hands.

''So Harry, hows this going to work?'' Josh asked Harry as he watched him strap his captains armband on and pin on his captain badge.

''Well I thought, we'd try out the Chasers first and we'll see which one can get the most goals past Ron, we'll also have to take into account their personalities, if they got on with the rest of the team and if they are committed. Then we'll set up the targets and see which of the Beaters can get the most on target. Then me, you and Ron will go away and decide which members will be on the team and we'll let them know tonight at Dinner.'' Harry explained as he surveyed the small crowd of people gathered on the Quidditch pitch, he saw a flash of red hair and he saw that Ginny was there, he knew she'd be good, she always was. She was one of the only people who could beat Ron know that he'd had Keeper lessons with Nick.

''Great.'' Josh answered happily and they all sped up to get to the pitch. Harry waited until precisely ten o'clock before starting then he sent the first Chaser up to try and beat Ron. Catherine Newart a fourth year scored two out of five shots, then Ben Griffiths scored one out of five. The rest of the Chaser's went up to try and get past Ron, with no great success the highest was three out of five possible scores. Then it was Ginny's turn she flew up into the air, Quaffle in one hand and lined up in front of Ron. She took her five shots and scored four out of five shots. The Beater practice was also a success, afteral they needed new Beaters after an incident the previous year where one of the Beaters choen to replace Fred and George had knocked himelf out with his own bat, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan hit the target four out of five and five out of five times respectively. Harry dismissed all of the possible new team members promising to have reached a decision by dinner time.

''So what do you think Harry?'' Ron asked as they stood watching the try-outs walk slowly back up to the castle chatting animatedly to each other.

''Well Dean and Seamus are definately in, those two are good, plus their best friends, so they'll work well together. What do you two think?'' Harry asked.

''I agree.'' Josh said.

''Me too. Plus they get on well with everybody on the team'' agreed Ron.

''So Dean and Seamus are the new Beaters, that just leaves the Chasers. Well that's mainly up to you Josh, you'll be working with them.'' Harry stated matter of factly.

''I think that Ginny should definately make the team, that girl can shoot.'' Josh said passionately, he was only going to let the best be working with him, afterall he was the lead Chaser now. I also think that, that Creevy kid is good.''

''But he only got two shots passed me.'' Ron complained. ''He's not that good.''

''Yeah, but I think with a bit of training he could be. Ginny could give him a few hints and tips, he'll be great.'' Josh enthused. ''Plus those two seem quite close, they'll work well together. I know it''

''Yeah they are close.'' Ron nodded halfheartedly.

''Are they boyfriend and girlfriend or something?'' Josh asked curiously. ''Because I think she could do alot better than him'' said Josh

''No their not going out with each other, their just good friends.'' Ron replied smirking

''Oh I thought so, she's too pretty to be with him, don't you think Harry?'' Josh asked but before Harry could reply Ron interrupted.

''He'd better think she's pretty.'' Ron said shouting in mock anger.

''Why?'' Josh asked, he was getting very confused.

''Because he's her boyfriend.'' Ron replied, laughing at the shocked look on Josh's face.

''Oh my God, I didn't know. I didn't mean that she was pretty........well I did but.......Oh God. I'm sorry Harry.'' Josh stuttered.

''Look don't worry about it.'' Harry said as he put his arm around Josh's shoulder. ''I don't blame you for thinking she's pretty, she is beautiful.'' Harry felt Josh relax next to him. ''Just don't go getting any funny idea's yeah, she's mine.'' Harry said half jokingly, although Josh didn't appear to get the joke as he mumbled an agreement and ran back up to the castle saying something about charms homework. Leaving Harry and Ron laughing hysterically out on the Quidditch pitch where they proceeded to have a one on one game of Quidditch.

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''What....what are you....doing?'' he asked trembling, his legs growing increasingly unsteadty, he felt that soon they would be unable to support his weight, he looked directly at the person standing in front of him and took in their tall figure, their arm extended out wards, towards him holding a wand that was aimed directly at his heart. ''Who are....you?'' he muttered quietly, his voice trembling, using all of his energy to try and remain standing.

''You know what I want.'' the cloaked figure answered in a cold calculating voice, ''All you have to do is tell me where it is, your parents can't, your grandparents won't, now I suggest you tell me right now.'' the tall figure spoke in a cold quiet voice that sent shivers down his spine.

''I don't know what you.......what you want.'' he answered determindly. ''Honestly.''

''Unfortunately, I find that hard to believe, you must know what I want, or are you not deemed trustworthy enough to be told of it's exsistence.''

''Well, I must be because I have no idea what it is you are talking about.'' he answered, his courage growing by the second, he hadn't been cursed yet, maybe he was going to get off without so much as a scratch.

''Well I'm sorry but you're going to have to pay for your ignorance boy. Soliqutrap'' the cold voice uttered the spell and watched as the latest victim fell to the floor, encased in a bubble full of liquid, his brown hair framing his ghostly white features, the liquid in the bubble emitting a soft whit glow that served to make the boy appear more pale and ghostly. And there he would remain, with his school tie floating up around his face ominously, until he was found, and that wouldn't be for a while as not many people entered the charms corridor at midnight, if he hadn't been under the Imperious curse at the time, the latest victim would never have been there either. These thoughts comforted the cloaked stranger as they turned and walked slowly away from the bubble that lay glowing on the Charms corridor floor in Hogwarts School of Wichcraft and Wizardry.

(A.N.....Hey I finished this last night so I thought I'd get it up so you could let me know what you think. I hope you all enjoyed, I did, it was sort of a junction chappie, that connects two parts of the story and clears up any unfinished things, Next chapter up soon I promise, I will start writing it immedeately. Review Please Luv all of ya ice princess12 xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx. P.S Any idea on the identity of the attacker?????)