: Happy now Ruth3?

Ruth3: Much better!

Back to the story…

"Yes sir." Harry paused. He couldn't do this to Piper, could he?

Dumbledore nodded, his blue eyes twinkling. He waited patiently for Harry to word his worries.

"It's about someone called Piper. I believe you've met her."

Dumbledore bowed his head. "Yes, I have met Piper Elfyn."

Harry looked up in surprise. "Elfyn?"

Dumbledore smiled. "You and your friends are very observant, aren't you?"

Harry gazed up at his headmaster. "You know."

Dumbledore sighed, then turned and sat behind his desk.

"Professor, I think all of us know a bit about this girl, wouldn't you say? What's now left is to piece the bits of information together."

His eyes twinkled mischievously. Snape paused, then pulled out from his robes a small vial of a light yellow liquid.

"This is a sample of the girls memory." He explained to a thoughtful Harry. "Hopefully, it should reveal all we need to know."

Piper woke up again to find that she hadn't been moved. She shifted slightly, only to be pulled to her feet roughly by the thing. He didn't look too pleased, and pushed her out of the hut with a strength unlike which she had never seen, or felt, before.

"It's time we talked to the headmaster."

Hermione frowned as she looked at the leather-bound book on the table. The page was 1988, but she didn't find anything that could be relevant. All the page talked about was mythological elf called Aeldair who had been wanted by the Dark Lord for her powers, and about how she had disappeared never to be seen again, 'For she was not of this kind' the book said – what was that supposed to mean?

Ginny peered over Hermione's shoulder.

"I don't see how this is supposed to help us."

"Me neither, but there's some information missing."

Hermione gestured to the bottom corner of the page, where it seemed a piece of the page had been ripped out. Ginny looked at it curiously.

"Looks like it was deliberate to me."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, then snapping the book closed, walked out of the common room towards the headmaster's office.

Cho decided to go to the Gryffindor Common Room. It was the only way she could settle this with Harry once and for all.

She strode up to the portrait of the Fat Lady just as Hermione was coming out. Hermione glared at her.

"Is Harry in there?" Cho asked, trying to look into the Common Room.

"None of your business." Hermione answered. "He doesn't want to see you."

Cho looked into Hermione's face, then her eyes narrowed.

"And why not?"

Hermione decided to make sure she never came back again.

"He's gone out with his girlfriend."

Cho turned away, then ran up the stairs to her own Common Room in tears.

"What did you do that for?" Ginny asked, her eyes wide.

"So she stops bothering us." Hermione answered, turning to go down the stairs.

Piper was not happy. She was now being half-dragged to the office of the person she most despised, and her place here was going to be revealed. She was not ready for it, but the hand on her right forearm meant she could not disappear to somewhere else, nor struggle out of the thing's grasp.

Harry plunged his head into the penisieve of memories, and was immediately surrounded by a bright yellow, powerful, glowing light. He did not struggle, but felt slightly claustrophobic because of the tension around his lungs.

Colours swirled around him, and he landed, on his feet, in a graveyard. Frowning, he looked around to see where the young Piper was.

She was running. From what, Harry couldn't see. But he was fairly certain that it was a figure in black robes. However, he got the biggest shock of his life, when Piper suddenly stopped running, and bent over panting. He saw a shape lurking behind her, then Piper turned and slammed a stake into its chest. The shadow immediately turned into ashes before his eyes.

As Piper turned to face him, he saw that her eyes had become dark and cold, showing hatred and fear in her face.

Hermione stopped at the entrance to Dumbledore's office panting. She sighed when she realized the task in front of her. Guessing the password. Harry had managed it many times, how she had never figured out.

"Acid Pops?" She tried, and the doors did not open.

"Bertie Bots Every Flavour Beans?" Again nothing happened.

Then she remembered what Harry had said to her about Dumbledoreeating a lot of a certain sweet.

"Lemon Drops!" And the doors opened.

"So, what's your name? Ouch!" Obviously he wasn't that friendly, Piper thought, rubbing her arm where the thing had roughly tightened its grip on.

"None of yer business." It replied, and carried on pulling her towards the main doors.

Then she found herself outside the headmaster's office.

Hermione couldn't understand why the office was empty. Dumbledore stayed here all the time, didn't he?

Ginny stood next to her. Wow, this office was huge.

Hagrid pushed Piper into the office, and sealed the door with a locking spell.

"Professor Dumbledore?" He called into the seemingly empty office.

"Hagrid?" Hermione dashed out from behind an armchair. "You scared us to death!"

When she spotted Piper, however, her eyes narrowed.

"What's she doing here?"