(A/N: Just a note for those of you who may want to know, this is a time warp chapter. Now were going back to the future to see what's going on there.)
Ron sat on the very large couch set in the Gryffindor common room with a very irritated look on his face as he watched Harry pace the room back and forth. Sure he was worried about Hermione too, after all it had nearly been forty-five minutes and she still had not yet returned from her stop at the restroom.
"I know girls are suppose to take a long time in the bathroom, but isn't this getting just a little bit ridiculous?" said Ron with a very sarcastic tone.
Harry stopped pacing and dropped himself into the couch across from Ron with an expression of defeat.
"I sure would say so. Are we being too over protective or should we have a reason to be?" said Harry, unsure of what to think at the moment.
"We both know the girl can fend for herself, but shouldn't we at least check on her?"
Harry shrugged. "Maybe she slipped into bed without us noticing. She's done the before…but still."
"I'll go ask Ginny. Be right back." Ron quickly moved towards the stairs to Ginny's room. He remembered her saying that they would be sharing a dorm room this year.
He knocked on the door three times and waited anxiously for someone to come. Hearing footsteps getting louder he composed himself and waited for the door to open. As it did he was relieved to see it was Ginny.
"Has Hermione gone to bed by any chance?" he asked.
"No, I haven't seen her since diner. Why? Is she missing?"
He didn't want it to look as if there was something wrong. The last thing they wanted was for everyone to panic right before bed. He assumed Harry and himself did enough panicking to make up for everyone.
"Oh no, no. I was just curious, I just um… wanted to ask what her schedule was this year," said Ron with a quick recovery.
"Well if I see her, I'll tell her your looking for her. Good night," she said as she closed the door softly.
"Night."
Ron didn't want his footsteps heard throughout the tower, so he slowly walked down the steps back to Harry, although he would have preferred to run all the way down. These were the times where he knew he was good quite at panicking. He didn't even need to say anything to Harry for him to know she wasn't there. He could tell through his face expression. He got up from his place on the couch and Ron followed.
"Come on," said Harry in great haste.
"Where to?" asked Ron catching up beside him.
"Well, first I guess we should check the most obvious place, and if she's not there the second most obvious, or at least for the moment. And if we still can't find her, I guess we'll have no choice but to ask Professor Dumbledore. He'll know. He always knows!"
"Wait!" Ron said as he grabbed Harry's arm and turned him. "Its after hours. We should take your invisibility cloak!"
"Right, good thinking."
A few moments later, Harry returned with his cloak at hand and threw it over them both. Opening the door to leave the common room, they didn't even give it time to release before they rushed out. If Ron's foot being halfway out of the cloak wasn't a hint there was someone there, then the sound of their feet would have been a dead giveaway. Thankfully they made it to the girls' bathroom with out any problems.
But as soon as they entered the bathroom, things seemed oddly peculiar. They both couldn't help but stare at the stonewall at the far end. It was mending itself! The stones were placing themselves back together. Harry noticed one of the faucets from the fountain was on and dripping to the ground. But the water was going underneath the fountain, as though it had been moved recently. Harry's eyes widened with shock as he realized that the entrance to the chamber of secrets had been opened. He looked over to Ron whom had the same expression upon his face.
"Um…lets not…lets not jump to conclusions here. There are still many places she could be. Lets check the library! You said yourself we should look at all the most obvious places, right?" said Ron quickly.
Harry nodded in agreement, but uncertainty. "Alright."
Only it seemed a bit too obvious, they checked the library anyways. Neither of the two had any hopes of her being there. They just felt like they needed the reassurance. They searched high and low through the library, softly calling out her name, praying that no one other than Hermione herself would hear them. Harry jumped out of his skin when he felt something crawl up against his leg. But as always it was Miss. Noriss, Filch's cat. Both Ron and Harry signed in relief. He had nearly given Ron a heart attack when he jumped back. Ron had had enough of this nonsense of just walking around hoping to bump into her. He and Harry were bumping into each other enough to make up for lost time over the summer.
"This is getting ridiculous. Can we please go to Dumbledore now Harry?" Ron said, not only sounding annoyed, but concerned.
"Yeah…yeah, lets go."
With that said and done they practically ran to the headmaster's office. But halfway there they were slightly run off course. Ron felt a hard tug at his collar and was shoved into the wall with Harry along side, as Harry made sure they were both completely covered by the invisibility cloak. Sure that they both were safely sheltered, he gestured to Ron that someone was coming, giving Ron relief that it wasn't a teacher whom had grabbed him nearly by the throat. Only it was ten times as worse. It was Malfoy and his goon squad.
As usual Malfoy was talking up a storm, but they could not yet make out what he was saying until he came within ten or so feet of them. Oddly enough, they weren't trying to hide their presence out after hours at all. But that answer was quickly answered by Malfoy's arrogance.
"Shut up already, Crabbe. I've told you, no one will care we are out here. Father has made sure of that."
"How do you know?" asked Goyle.
"I'm not about to tell you out here. The walls have ears these days."
Ron just shook his heard in silent laughter. If only he knew.
"Besides, we have other things to worry about. We're out here for a reason you know."
"Which is?" said Goyle boldly.
"Father says that …"
Both Harry and Ron became incredibly angry as his voice began to fade out again before they could catch the rest of what he was going to say.
"Come on," Ron whispered. "We can still catch them and get the rest."
"No!" said Harry, grabbing Ron once again. "We came down this way for a reason, remember! We'll get what he said later! We have to find Hermione!"
"I don't think she's in Dumbledore's office Harry," Ron said sarcastically. "For all we know Malfoy may know something. He's usually involved when theres something suspicious going on."
"I think Dumbledore may be able to help out more than he ever could, Ron!"
Ron nodded in utter agreement and they continued on to Professor Dumbledore's office. They came to a dead stop as the encountered the entrance to his office when they remembered…they didn't know the password.
"All this way for nothing." Said Ron angrily as he realized their problem.
"Trolli O's, Milky Way, Snickers, Nerds, M&Ms,…uh…Skittles?" And without a doubt, the entrance opened. Ron looked at Harry with a bewildered look upon his face.
"Muggle candies," Harry said. "Figured he might like the whole rainbow slogan."
They ran as fast as the could up to the steps, where they could gradually hear the sound of snoring getting louder. The paintings were definitely asleep again.
They met the Headmaster as he was coming down the steps from the top floor of his office. He was already dressed for bed with his top hat and everything. Harry and Ron didn't wait a second to cut to the chase, panting hard from all the running.
"Hermione…gone…w, think…chamber of secre…been opened, stonewall all cracked…" said Ron trying to catch his breath.
"How could that be? I sealed the chamber shut forever just a few years ago once you both returned during your second year." Said the headmaster.
Harry, whom given the opportunity to catch his breath since Ron chose to speak for them, had somewhat recovered and started to explain.
"She went to the restroom and said she would be right back," he stalled to take a breath, "but never came back. We went to look for her and the stonewall was sealing itself, and water was leak-
But Harry stalled as the entrance to Professor Dumbledore's office was heard being opened yet again. They all stood there waiting for the appearance of whomever it was who chose to enter at such an inconvenient time. Harry lowered his head as he wondered how many unwelcome people he would unfortunately have to deal with in just one night. Snape walked in with a scowl on his face that obviously showed he wasn't too pleased to see Harry and Ron either.
"Yes, Severus may I help you?" said Dumbledore.
"I certainly hope so Headmaster, but I must ask that Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley leave us to talk privately. I have rather important business to discuss with you."
Harry, being just a tad bit ticked off by this comment didn't hesitate one bit before giving back a complaint as Ron couldn't help but think, Here it goes.
"We have rather important business to dicuss too if you don't mind!" said Harry.
"Please don't start," Ron said weakly. He for one was not in the mood for getting into an argument. It seemed to him that Snape as easily set off Harry as he did when in the presence of Malfoy.
"Yes, please don't. Harry, please continue."
He took a deep breath and began again. "I was just saying, that the fountain was leaking into the floor below in the girls' restroom, and about the wall…um…well Ron went to Ginny and she said she hadn't gone to her room yet, and…"
"Yes, I see where you are getting at Harry. That does sound fairly peculiar. I intend to speak with you more about this in just a moment, but I feel Professor Snape needs a turn now. Could you wait a few minutes outside my office while we talk for a moment?"
"Yes, Professor," said Harry. Having a feeling what Professor Snape had to say was rather important, they both left quietly to wait below.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Once the very irritated Professor Snape knew they were alone, he decided it was the right time to spill the very disturbing news.
"Headmaster, I feel the need to briefly remind you that the dark mark when upon one's arm is meant to burn when the dark lord is near to allow his death eaters to know of his wear abouts."
"Yes, go on."
"I don't believe it was meant to during this past hour, as it happens, mine was."
Professor Dumbledore's eyes widened when he heard this. How could Voldemort have been able to get close enough to Hogwarts for Professor Snape's dark mark to burn? There were many spells to block any evil what so ever in order to protect the students. He suddenly came to realize how these two different stories might fit together a bit too nicely for comfort.
"Would you mind Severus," said Professor Dumbledore, even though he knew good and well that he would mind, " if I called Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley back in."
"I'm trying to tell that the dark lord was here and may have caused havoc and all you can worry about is the forsaken trio?" said Snape whom was on the verge of yelling.
"I wish I were worried about the trio Severus, only there is but a duo at moment. They have informed me that Miss. Granger has gone missing in the past hour and the last place she was seen was in the girl's bathroom."
Snape hesitated for a moment before speaking again.
"Are we speaking of the girl's bathroom?" inquired professor Snape.
"Yes, Severus. I'm afraid so."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"What on Earth could be as important as someone going missing like this, Harry? He probably did this just to bug us," complained Ron.
They both stood there leaning against the stonewall of the hall before the entrance to Professor Dumbledore's office, very anxiously waiting for the chance to go back in and continue their talk with the headmaster.
"Who knows these days?" said Harry, a little taken back by Ron's remark. Guessing he wasn't pleased either; he found it good to know he wasn't the only one a little upset.
Within minutes the entrance opened itself again allowing Ron and Harry to enter.
Ron sighed in relief as they both took off as quick as they could. The headmaster and Professor Snape came into view soon enough, although Harry noticed Professor Dumbledore was changed into his robes rather than his pajamas as he was before. He knew immediately that they would be going a trip. It didn't take him long to gather where. But why was Snape still there?
"Harry, Professor Snape and I have a somewhat stressful favor to ask of you." Said the Headmaster.
Harry nodded in reply for him to continue.
"Would you be willing to open the chamber of secrets for us all and guide us through it to where you met Tom Riddle in your second year?"
Harry had to try his best to keep his jaw from dropping, as did Ron. Although he thought he might ask it of him, he wasn't fully prepared for it. But with a weak voice that didn't feel much like his own, he answered.
"Yes."
A/N: Phew! That was a long one. And I'm glad to see it too. You don't know how hard I had to push myself to stop myself from cutting it short and making it two chapters. But I decided this might be good place to stop. I need to add some more detail and elaborate onto the next chapter and take my time with it. It's going to be a really crucial one as some of you may have gathered, so I better take my time with it. But I'll try to update soon. This is going to be a tough week in school, so I'm not so sure about it being updated until over a week from now, if not more. Next weekend will be crazy too. I've got a dreaded French 3 oral and a competition to get ready for, so I'll be writing it piece by piece. So therefore I decided to give you guys a little extra to read to make up for it since all my other chapters were so short. MAN! Even my author's note is long!
Kate Crawford- Thank you! That means a lot. Yeppers, the school issue is getting old. French is EVIL! :::growls:::
Ashii Black- Wow! I'm honored. :::grins wide::: Thank you!
SurfAngel- Happy! Lol, Happy is good. We'll see. Keep reading! Everything will come together. And yes, they both really do love each other. :::looks cautiously from right to left::: A LOT!
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Hallie Walker- Thank you so reviewing, sometimes I need those kinds of reviews, they help to push me a little more.
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PS- Please forgive any grammar mistakes. I suck at editing.
And for those of you who haven't please review!