Hey everyone! I finally got this chapter up! It took me forever! I found so many mistakes in my original copy that I just rewrote the whole chapter! Thanks to everyone who's been waiting and who reveiewed chapter 4 - xxginnyfanxx and lindsey-31. Now on with the story!

Chapter 5

Shock

"Wha- What?" mumbled Harry, he looked over to side table at his clock, it read 10:00 a.m. "Aw… man I was sleeping in!" Then he remembered Ron had been screaming and turned to look at him.

Seeing that Harry had not understood what he had said he repeated himself a little calmer but still shaky, "Ha-Harry, Hermione, some-something's happened to her…"

"What! What happened to her? Is she alright?" said Harry fully awake and anxious to find out what was happening.

"No, no she's fine… It's her parents. Malfoy's dad, you know how he escaped and joined Voldermort back, right?" Ron said looking Harry straight in the eyes, his eyes were red and puffy and looked terrified.

Harry nodded. "Well, no one's heard from him and the others for the whole summer. There was one case where the Creevy's parents were killed but we still don't know by whom. Well, when Hermione called her parents this morning. She didn't get an answer, which has never happened before. Worried she called again, still no answer. Well, anyway, she went to go find someone, she found Moody."

Harry following closely had no idea where this was going, but wanted to hear the whole thing, let Ron continue.

"Moody, being over reactive as usual, Apparated straight to their house in Oxford with Hermione…" at this point Ron couldn't go on anymore and burst into tears. "I- I- can't say anymore, you're going to have to ask Hermione…"

"Oh, God! Why did it have to happen to her! Why!" Ron started screaming and cursing and finally grabbed Harry by the shoulders and told him in between sobs,

"Whatever happens, remember this is not your fault…I want you to promise me you won't blame yourself."

Harry unsure what to say, "Fine, I won't."

"PROMISE ME!" Ron begged, still sobbing.

Harry muttered, "I promise…"

"Thank you…" was all Ron said before he seemed to pass out on the bed.

Not wanting to disturb him Harry quickly exited the room to find Hermione. 'Please don't let anything bad have happened' he prayed to himself, but he knew in his heart something terrible must have happened for Ron to be acting this way.

Making his way down the stairs and into the hallway, he heard crying. Knowing that something was wrong he continued to walk down the hallway into the living room. What he saw was enough to make his heart stop. There was Luna and Neville on opposite sides of Hermione, they looked like they were trying to talk to her, but she just kept shaking her heard and crying.

"Hermione! Are you alright? What happened? Ron tried to explain but he just couldn't…" he was never able to finish his sentence because he was suddenly embraced by a large fuzzy brown girl. He went silent, he looked to Neville and Luna for help but they were quiet and watched the scene unravel.

"Hermione, we need to talk…" but once again he was cut off by a small finger that shushed his lips.

"Please, just stay here…" was all she said.

Harry obeyed; he thought he owed her that much after all she had done for him. He still wondered what had happened. All he could remember important that Ron had told him was Moody apparating himself and Hermione to her house. They had found something there. What happened?

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by Hermione pulling away and wiping away her tears, trying to calm down, but she started hiccupping. She looked up at Harry, her eyes were bloodshot red and puffy, her hair was more of a mess than usual and her faced was tear stained.

"Ha- Harry, my parents hiccup they're hiccup they're…" she stammered out.

"They're what, Hermione? They're not dead are they?" he said his voice panicing. 'Please, oh, please, don't let them be dead…'

She shook her head, "Worse…" was all she could manage and then she burst into tears again.

Neville taking that as his que, spoke up to Harry, "They were driven insane, Harry. Lucius Malfoy was trying to figure out where we were and tortured them into insanity. They did not tell where we were. They did not go in vein." He said this calmly, trying to comfort Hermione and explain to Harry at the same time. "Professor Dumbledore is filling out paper work to have muggles transported to St. Mungo's. I don't think they ever had muggles in their facilities before…" he cut himself off seeing Hermione starting to break out into tears again.

Harry was speechless. Yes, he had lost his parents but he barely remembered them. Hermione on the other hand had known hers for fifteen years. She had lived, talked, and even shared with her parents. It wasn't fair for that to happen to her. She was the smartest student that Hogwarts had ever had, and for her parents to be insane, it just wasn't fair. Then it hit him, Lucius Malfoy, hater of muggle-borns and muggles, had done something worse than kill. He had left them alive but yet sucked the very thing that made them human out of them, their mind and soul. Without that they were just bodies and that's what Hermione was going to have to call her parents from now on. Oh, the Malfoys' were going to pay! But right now he needed to do something for Hermione, but what? He thought to himself.

Then Luna abruptly interrupted his thoughts, he had almost forgotten she was there, but he was thankful she was, "Hermione, I don't know exactly what to say… I don't know what you feel, and I'm not going to pretend I understand. But there is one thing that I know, your parents really loved you. They were willing to die for you and were stripped of that right. They instead gave up only what they could, their minds."

Hermione shuddered slightly but Luna continued.

But Hermione they didn't give up their hearts, if they had we would all be dead right now. Hermione, they wouldn't want you to cry over them. They would probably want you to praise them for their good deed!" and she ended her speech, leaving Hermione looking confused for once.

"I- I- never thought of it like that…" Hermione admitted.

"But make no mistake, Hermione, you should still mourn over them, just don't let it ruin your life. That's what they would want and what they deserve." Luna added on a gentler tone.

This statement left everyone quiet and looking at Hermione who had a small smile creeping onto her face. "Thank you, Luna," was all she said before running upstairs to where Ron was.

"Luna, that meant a lot to me," mumbled Neville. "I've always just dealt with my parent's insanity as an accident, doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. But now I know why my Gran said I should be proud of them, they gave what they could for me, for everyone else, for the world, I understand now." And with that he took Luna into a huge hug. A little shocked at his reaction, Luna's eyes went bigger than usual, but eventually she returned the hug. After that Neville's face was red and he ran upstairs to see how Ron was.

This left Harry and Luna alone. 'Finally' he thought to himself. 'I can't push this off any longer'. "Luna, can I talk to you, please?" he almost begged.

"Oh, of course, Harry." She said in what he thought must be her normal voice because it didn't trail off for once. And she sat down on the couch, waiting for Harry to join to her.

He did so and finally asked, "Do you think that it's my fault that Sirius died?" They had long since filled her in on the whole Sirius incident.

She took a moment to think then looked Harry straight into his emerald green eyes and said, "No, Harry, I don't." Relief flooded over his face but he knew that she was not finished yet. "It wasn't your's, Dumbledore's, Snape's or even Belle Lestrange's…" She stopped for a moment to make sure that Harry was still listening then continued, "It was one man's fault…"

Harry could feel his stomach tightening, 'Don't say it was Sirius's fault, don't say it was Sirius's fault…' was all he could help thinking.

"Voldermort's." she said it so simply as if it were just a name and she was saying a simple fact in school.

She noticed Harry's confusion and added, "If it weren't for him there would have been no War, no innocent deaths, no famous you, no experiments…" she inhaled quickly after that and continued. "Your parents would be alive, you would have most likely never become such good friends with us, you would never have had adventures, and of course be happy. Without Voldermort you would not be, Harry Potter the Boy-Who-Lived, you would just be normal Harry without a lightening bolt scare smack dab in the middle of your forehead! Malfoy wouldn't be so incredibly deadly, Hermione wouldn't be suffering, Neville wouldn't feel empty, Ron would have a whole other set of aunts and uncles, and I would still have my mum…"

Harry was still in complete shock. He had no idea how Luna's mum had died except that it had been in a lab experiment of some type. As if she could read his mind she added, "She had been trying to prove that Voldermort was still alive, she came across a dead snake one day in the forest. She brought it back into the lab in our house. She must have done something wrong because there was a huge explosion. I was only nine at the time so I was curious. I ran downstairs to the lab and saw the door blow off the hinges. Scared, I opened the door, what I saw was horrific. My mother was bleeding up against the wall, next to a snake which I discovered to be dead. There was green smoke everywhere, when I looked closer I noticed a skull in the middle. Then my dad came running down the stairs and screamed at the sight. The last thing I remember before being rushed out of the room was my mother saying 'Remember me…' and I have and always will. She didn't die a hero like your parents, Harry, but she died for a cause. From that day on I knew that a man named Tom Marvolo Riddle was alive. That's all I found in papers that had anything to do with what she was working on." She finished in a calm voice but there were tears on the rims of her eyes.

As one fell down, Harry wiped it away, wanting no distractions from her eyes. They were the eyes of a strong, brave and confident person, he didn't feel like he deserved to look into such eyes but he kept his gaze before saying, "I never knew… I never knew my parents, but- but you knew your mother, remember your mother. All I have is a flash of green light and photographs… Then I met Sirius after thinking he was the reason that I didn't have memories of them. Then I found out about Pettigrew, who had been my parent's friend and betrayer. I thought that it was his entire fault, but it wasn't. You were right it was all Voldermort's fault. If it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have this scar, these nightmares, that vision, that adventure to the Department of Mysteries, that battle, and his death. It would have all been fine…"

"Don't lose sight of your destiny though, Harry, what has happened in the past can't be changed but what happens in the future can. That's what we have to fight for. That's why all this is happening. So stop focussing on the past and start focussing on the present, that's what Sirius would have wanted, you know that, Sirius wouldn't have wanted you to dawdle on what could have been but instead what could be."

They were quiet for a moment then Luna said, "Sorry, Harry, but it's been a long day, I think I might need to take a nap before lunch…" and with that she went down the hall and upstairs to her room.

Deciding he wasn't hungry, he was about to go up to his room when remembered that Ron, Neville and Hermione were up there, but then he remembered that he was supposed to be comforting Hermione went upstairs.

'This is going to be a long day' he thought to himself.