Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

By: Krystal Lily Potter

Chapter Twenty: Little Bits of Everything

Rating: PG-13 (more on the AA side)

Couples: HP/HG, DT/LB, PP/SF, LL/NL, DT/GW, LB/RW, LL/RW, HP/CC

Summary: As Harry and his friends enter their sixth year at Hogwarts they don't enter the cheerful world they left behind. They enter a world covered in a thick blanket of fear. It only hits Harry how important he really is when people start seeing him as the light that allows them to see under this blanket. Along with his friend he must battle the horrors of the past, present, and possible the future to begin the end of the war, hopefully before it hits Hogwarts. What happens when people start disappearing from under Dumbledore's protection, and one of the famous 'trio' disappears? It's up to the last two, plus some more friends, to find a way to save all the people that disappeared because they can't fight this war on their own...

Warning: Dark themes will be mentioned a lot and if worst comes to worst I'll rate this R because of that. There's swearing, mentions of suicide, murder, rape, gore/bloody scenes, and other dark things like that...

Chapter Note: This chapter takes place a few days after the last one. Oh and also with their classes they have four periods a day (the older students) but most of them only have three classes per day so that means they get a double period. It shifts from day to day. I mentioned this because at the beginning of the fic I said they had Evelyn, McGonagall then Snape, well in this one we see McGonagall then Evelyn and Snape was before that...so I just thought I'd say why. Also there's a lot of just other characters talking here, but it all has to do with Harry. Read carefully, you never know what's a hint.

Cho Chang glared across the Great Hall at Harry and Hermione. Her perfect nails dug into her palms from anger as she watched the two talk.

"Cho?" Marietta asked and followed her friend's gaze, her eyes darkening. "Just ignore them, he isn't worth it."

"No she isn't worth it," Cho growled angrily. "He's the boy who lived."

A few seats down Luna Lovegood was listening intently. Nobody would have known she was though; she still had her spaced out look on her face. The blond haired Ravenclaw knew about many things that happened around the school, actually if she wanted to she could be the gossip queen because she knew so much and was a great listener. That was one of the reasons she was in Ravenclaw, she could take information and keep it in correctly, not mess it up somehow.

"You know, you are Head girl," Marietta said thoughtfully. "You could just remove Hermione from her Prefect's duty, just frame her for something."

Cho got a thoughtful look on her face and said, "You know I will do that. There's a meeting in a half an hour, I'll just tell her then." With that she got up and walked away gracefully.

Luna's eyes followed her then she jumped up and walked briskly towards the Head table.

"Professor Dumbledore?" she asked.

Dumbledore smiled at the wide-eyed fifth year and said, "Yes, is there anything I can do for you Luna?"

"Yes sir," she said. "You see I just heard Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecombe talking. They said Cho was going to remove Hermione Granger from Prefect duties for no reason at all."

Dumbledore chuckled a little and said, "Don't worry, she cannot do that. Amazing how rumors work though isn't it Ms. Lovegood?"

She stared at him for a minute but not oddly like most people would. "Yes it is sir. Well I'll be off now. I need to get to that meeting."

"Luna, can you give Miss. Chang this note?" Dumbledore asked and conjured a piece of parchment out of thin air and a quill and wrote something on it then passed it to her.

"Yes sir," with that she turned around and started running towards the doors as Harry and Hermione got up and walked out of them, pointedly ignoring the whispers and glances that followed them.

"Harry, Hermione," she called out as the two older students stopped and she ran up to them.

"Hi Luna, I haven't seen much of you aside from the ULD meetings and Prefect's meetings," Harry said to her as she joined them.

"It's been busy," she said.

Hermione got a surprised look on her face and thought, 'She actually gave a straight answer.'

"I heard Cho talking to Marietta at the table," Luna said, bringing up the topic lightly.

Both the brunette and the raven haired boy's heads shot towards her and she continued, "She was saying she was going to take your Prefect badge from you Hermione. I went to Dumbledore and he said she won't and gave me this note to give to hear."

Harry had to move a little away from Hermione because you could pretty much see flames in her eyes from anger.

"If she ever did," Hermione growled. "Then that prefect little face of hers would be black and blue!"

Both of her friends moved away from her now from fear of getting hit by the angry girl as they continued their way up the stairs.

"Cho," Luna said.

The pretty Chinese girl looked at Luna with sheer distaste. "Yes?"

"Professor Dumbledore asked me to give this to you when he saw me leaving the Great Hall," she said and passed Cho the note.

Cho read it, her dark brown eyes widening and she muttered under her breath, "Head students do not have the power to take a Prefect's prefect badge." Her gaze snapped towards Luna who was now chatting happily to the Hufflepuff prefect from her year.

She sat down grumpily beside Dave Vance. Dave had been a little 'iffy' with Harry at the first of the year because he thought he would goof off just like Ron had the year before but now the two got along just fine.

Currently he was shooting the two Gryffindor Sixth years amused looks, as was everyone else except for Cho (who was glaring at the table) and Luna (who looked airy as always).

"Nothing happened!" Harry yelled. "I swear!"

"Sure Potter," Dave said and after he added in a fake cough, "Denial."

"It's a lake in Egypt," someone else said and everyone laughed.

"We've gotta get the school's minds off of what happened," Hermione whispered urgently to Harry.

He bit his lip and thought but nothing seemed to come to mind.

"Now we've all decided, since the mood has been a little...darker in the castle lately, we should do something fun before the Christmas season. We were thinking the day before everyone goes home, since Dumbledore insisted that's what most people do," Dave said.

Suddenly an idea hit Hermione and a smile appeared on her face as she blurted out, "How about a ball?"

"A ball?" a guy asked but all the girls already burst into exciting whispers.

"That's a great idea," Ebony said. That shocked about half the people in there to see a Slytherin agreeing with a Gryffindor, let alone a muggle-born one.

Cho had a thoughtful look on her face and she said, "You know, a ball isn't a half bad idea."

Everyone whispered excitedly.

"But," Cho said, causing the whispers to die down. "Since it was your idea Hermione, I believe it'd only be fair to let you be the one to plan it, and decorate for it. You see the day we'd be having it is also a day for Hogsmead." Her eyes traveled over to Harry.

He noticed this then said, "Yeah Hermione you're good at planning, and I'll help as much as I can."

Hermione had frowned at Cho but brightened up when Harry said that. "That's a great idea! It can be like a surprise for everyone! We'd have to get some help from the teachers though and a few suggestions are always helpful."

Harry stared at his friend with a raised eyebrow and an almost scared look on his face. A few people Ernie, Anthony, and Blaise all saw this and sniggered at him lightly.

"Oh there's so much planning to do," Hermione said. "Decorations, food, other gusts aside from the students..."

Harry sighed and shook his head at his friend with an amused look on replacing the scared one.

This was promising to be interesting, that was for sure.

Ron and Harry were playing chess while Hermione sat next to Ron on the couch, going through many pieces of parchment she had wrote on. Anytime either of the boys would try and talk to them she'd give them a death glare that could probably make Voldemort himself feel like running away.

"HA!" Ron yelled proudly as he slaughtered Harry once again. He did an odd little dance, receiving many laughs from around the room.

Hermione shot him a dare glare and hissed, "Sit down, your causing a scene."

"We always cause scenes Hermione," he replied dryly and Harry chuckled at his friend. She shot him her infamous 'don't-you-dare-talk-back-to-me' look and turned back to the papers.

Harry was smiling at his friends but he had a far away look in his eyes. It wasn't the sad one he had when thinking about Sirius, just a normal spaced out look everybody got from time to time.

"What's on your mind mate?" Ron asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Oh," Harry said and thought for a minute. "Nothing really, I guess I was just spacing out."

Now Hermione was playing Ron at chess while Harry sat beside his friend and had a chance to think.

He knew he was a terrible liar, but he also knew he was good at hiding things, plain and simple. If no one asked him what he was thinking, no one would know. If someone asked and he lied, they'd know something was up.

The reason he was thinking about that was because he had started having nightmares with his other self again and he knew with Ron in the room once again he wouldn't be able to hide it for much longer.

He watched his friends play for a little while then stared out the window and saw snow starting to fall outside and for a moment, he thought he saw a face staring in at him, but decided it was simply just his imagination, he was tired after all.

Professor McGonagall with her sharp eyes as the class put their parchment away neatly in their bags. In her opinion the usage of a muggle notebook and pen were far easier and convenient, but the Ministry would never agree to it.

"Class, settle down," she said and everyone went quiet automatically.

Hermione was suddenly on the edge of her seat, she knew what her favorite professor was going to say.

"It has been decided this year that we need a bit of cheer since these attacks started. So I'd pleased to announce that on the day before the trains leave for Platform 9¾ that there will be a ball," she said and all the girls started talking at once. "Now dates aren't mandatory but they are welcome. There will be more adults there this year then back in your fourth year just in case but make them feel welcome, they are guests there."

Parvati looked like she was about to burst with excitement and Lavender was rocking back and fourth on her seat, waiting for the bell to ring, signaling lunch and then Defense, where Professor Evelyn would surly let them talk about the ball.

"Now since there are guests from outside the school I expect everyone to behave appropriately. Also dress school appropriate, I'm not sure but I've heard rumors that it's a theme this year, correct Miss. Granger, Mr. Potter?"

The two nodded then Harry said, "Yes there's going to be a theme...what theme though is the question...there hasn't been a final decision on it yet."

"But we get the idea of what it's going to be," Hermione added. "But we're not allowed to tell yet, you'll all know by tomorrow."

All the girl's in the class looked at the two Prefects as if they were eyeing an extremely nice piece of jewelry they wanted.

As soon as the bell rang and they were out of the classroom the two were attacked with questions.

"Sorry but we can't tell you anything!" Harry yelled over the crowd but nobody was listening to him.

"Hey you know I heard a rumor that the plans for the ball were locked up in the girl's wardrobe in the Gryffindor tower," Ron said suddenly.

All the girls stared at him then Parvati said, "Let's move girls!"

"You're a life saver Ron," Harry said with a sigh.

"I know, but you two have to promise to tell me what the plans are before anyone else, ok?" Ron said seriously. "Fair enough," Hermione agreed and the three friends headed towards the Great Hall for lunch.

"I'm starved," Ron muttered.

'You're always starved," Hermione shot back.

He shot her a friendly glare as they continued walking down the wide stone steps.

Hermione had gone to talk to a few of the other girls about makeup, dresses and such.

Ron noticed a slightly spaced out look on his best friend's face and said, "A Knut for your thoughts? The Famous Harry Potter's thoughts are obviously worth a Galleon but I don't have any on me..." He was just joking mind you.

Harry smirked, knowing his best friend did indeed have a few Galleons on him. The Ministry gave them money when they returned. They said it was in honor of surviving, Harry said it was because the Ministry would do anything to such up now a day.

He shook his head and said, "No...just thinking...and no it's not about Voldemort."

Ron winced a bit but not as much as he would have before and said, "Come on mate, you can trust me with this. Is it a girl? I heard rumors that Cho Chang is trying to get back with you but she's driving everyone insane in the process, so it's not her..."

Harry just stared at his friend with amusement then got a disturbed look on his face as Ron said, "Is it...Lavender? Parvati? Padma? Luna? Ginny? Hermione? Eb-no bloody way." Ron had seen how Harry's facial features changed when he said Hermione. "You like Hermione?"

"I never once said that," Harry shot back.

"No but that look on your face..." Ron insisted.

"I don't like Herm, besides I know you like her," he said.

Ron got an odd look on his face and said, "I'll admit, I did like Hermione but I realized last year that...she doesn't like me that way. The way her face looked when she found out that I was the prefect, not you...it looked like her biggest dream had been torn away." There was along pause.

"She likes me as a friend Ron and that's how I like her," Harry said evenly.

"If you say so mate," he replied with a sigh.

Harry suddenly smirked then said, "The Great Ronald Bilius Weasley must have someone lined up to go to the ball with already."

Ron's face went red and he coughed into his golden goblet. After a minute he moved it away from his mouth and said, "To be honest, I'm in a little bit if a jam with that..."

"What did you do now?" Harry said with a smirk as he continued eating the food that was on his plate.

"You see, both Lavender and Luna asked me to go to the ball with them," Ron said with a slightly confused look on his face. "I said I'd think about it but I honestly don't know who to go with."

"Well," Harry said with a thoughtful look after he took a gulp of pumpkin juice. "Luna will probably go with Neville if you say no, and I don't think she'll be too upset if you just tell her that for the moment you want to be friends."

"You know," Ron said. "I think I'll do that. I mean she's been talking to me more lately and makes a great friend and all, but I don't know her well enough yet..."

"Fair enough," Harry insisted.

Ron looked a little uncertain for a moment then got up and headed towards the Ravenclaw table, where the blond haired girl sat, humming to herself.

Harry watched his friend talk to her and she just smiled and shook her head then Ron left with a look of relief on his face.

"She took it great," Ron said. "She just said it was alright and for me to go with Lavender and have fun."

Harry nodded then said, "You better go to tell Lavender your going with her then."

"Yeah," the bell went off at that moment. The two hadn't realized they had been talking almost all lunch. "I'll tell her now so she doesn't get asked out by someone else. We'll be a little late for Evelyn's class though, but she'll understand, right?"

"I saw her earlier and she seemed in a really good mood, so yes don't worry about it, you'll get off the hook," Harry said as he picked up his books and walked out of the Great Hall as Ron dragged Lavender off to the side.

Hermione ran up beside Harry and said, "What was that about?"

"Lavender asked Ron to the ball in class, so he was just telling her yes," Harry said with a shrug.

Hermione smiled and said, "And to think he was the last one to have a date last time."

"And he only got it thanks to me," Harry said with a smirk as they finally got up to Evelyn's room.

Their teacher seemed in be in an extremely good mood that day. Her eyes seemed to sparkle in the dim light and her cheeks were flushed a light pink as she moved around.

Her emerald green eyes were sparkling happily and her blond hair was tired messily back in a loose ponytail.

"Today we'll be doing," she paused to think. "Well I don't care what you do! Just make it worth while of this class. Study dark creatures, curses and they're defenses, anything you want! I'm in a really good mood and I don't feel like torturing you kiddies today."

This was certainly an improvement from when nobody passed in their essays on their wands. She had been livid for almost two weeks straight and gave them a lot of extra hard work. Even Hermione had trouble with that amount of work on everything else but Professor Dumbledore had stepped in.

Harry decided to make it look like he was reading, when in reality all he was doing was thinking. No not about the ball, about Voldemort.

He had gone oddly silent all of a sudden, which gave Harry a terrible feeling of foreboding. Something big was going to happen and he didn't like it one bit.

Losing himself in his thoughts he didn't realize how fast the class actually was going by. As the bell rang, signaling the end of the day, he felt a sharp pain in his scar. Wincing slightly he looked around to see if it could have been triggered by anyone in the class, but he knew it wasn't.

Something big was going to happen soon, but he had no clue what.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Things seemed to be good lately. There were no attacks in the school, no one heard of Voldemort at all and the security was ordered by the Ministry to relax a little.

Although not everyone thought this was the wisest of ideas.

"They want us to rest a little," Tonks growled one night at a meeting. "I don't see the Ministry down here trying to protect the students!"

"We've been guarding the castle since day one this year," Remus said. "And being a werewolf and all I'm more sensitive to dark energy around and I've been feeling it all year, and it's still here."

"The Ministry won't listen to us though if we try to tell them," Tonks informed him. "A werewolf and an ex-Auror who told her boss that he could go fuck himself? That'd be the day..."

Remus nodded with agreement.

The two were stationed on the third floor that night in what was once the forbidden corridor.

They knew why it had been forbidden in Harry's first year, because of the philosopher's stone. Well Fluffy might have been a little bit of a factor then too. The thing was, it was still forbidden. No one was allowed down there, although Dumbledore assured everyone that if a student did go down there they would not be threatened by anything deadly.

"You know," Tonks said thoughtfully. "This corridor is forbidden right?"

"Right," Remus said.

"Dumbledore told everyone they weren't allowed down here, right?"

"Right," Remus said again, wondering where this was going.

"Well in Harry's first year he said that and then Harry and his friends did come down here. Maybe Dumbledore WANTS them to come back here. You know how when somebody tells you not to touch something but doesn't say why you usually get really curious about it?" she said.

"You know that makes sense, but what could be down here that Dumbledore wants Harry to see?" he replied, more to himself then to Tonks.

She shrugged anyway and said, "Guess we'll have to wait to find out..."

Dumbledore sat in his office behind his desk, looking at the portraits of all the previous Headmasters and Headmistresses the school had.

Behind him the Gryffindor Sword gleamed proudly in its class case. The blade was stained with the red blood of the Basilisk that Harry had slain years ago.

The old Headmaster thought it odd to think like that. It seemed just like yesterday that James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew would bound around the hallways as if they owned the place, playing pranks of unsuspecting students, usually Snape. Then Lily Evans, who was a shy little thing when she first came to Hogwarts, would give them a piece of her mind and temper.

James Potter and Lily Evans weren't as gone as they seemed to be though. Albus could still see them, within their son, Harry Potter. Harry was physically James through and through, except for his eyes and his nose. Those he inherited from his mother. His amazing Quidditch skills and his habit for attracting trouble also came from his father, although it was defiantly a different kind of trouble.

On the other hand Harry not only had Lily's fiery temper but he also had a lot of her personality. His kindness, modesty, his stubbornness...yes he was like both of his parents in many ways. Both had been fine leaders and that showed through in their son as well. Harry's humor and the way he spoke an acted at times reminded Dumbledore of neither of his parents, but of Sirius Black.

Harry never got the chance to spend much time with Sirius but the man had still rubbed off onto him that was definent.

Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Cedric Diggory and believe it or not even Peter Pettigrew and Voldemort had a positive impact on Harry's life.

He on the other hand...yes Albus had helped Harry in many situations but he did it from afar, wanting the boy to become stronger on his own. The old headmaster realized though that through all of his planning he had over looked one thing...what if Potter didn't want to do it alone?

Sighing heavily the Headmaster knew he had make a huge mistake, and he also knew this one couldn't be fixed anymore.

Harry sighed deeply as he ran down the hall. No he wasn't going to be late from his last class, but he was scared he was going to see himself, which would mess up time greatly.

'Even worse,' he thought dully. 'What if Hermione sees me? I'll never hear the end of it.'

He hid behind a door and watched his other self stop for a minute before going around a corner, taking out his time-turner and disappearing. He then charged into the hallway as quietly and as quickly as he could. Nobody noticed anything odd had happened.

He didn't see a small problem that had been behind him at the time. A little red haired girl by the name of Nicola Granger had saw him go around one corner and come out of another door.

"Harry!" she called out suddenly.

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Lavender turned around. Harry mentally slapped himself when he realized what she has seen.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Can you come look at something for me?" she asked timidly.

"Sure, you guys keep going," Harry said. "Mathers won't kill me if I'm late, he likes me."

The other three nodded and continued on their way. Harry stayed silent until he knew they were out of ear shot then he asked quietly, "What did you see?"

"I saw one you go around there then you came out of that door. You said there was a second one of you so I though..." Nicola trailed off.

Harry sighed lightly then he said, "No Nikky that was me. Your sister told you about a time-turner right?" She nodded. "Well I have one this year. Please don't tell anyone, I don't want them to worry about me."

"You can count on me," she said happily and skipped off in the opposite direction.

Harry cursed at himself and said mentally, "Note to self: be more careful."

He didn't know how right he was.

Author's Insane Babbling

Yeah this is shorter then normal...sorry. But I wanted to update so you all know I'm still here, but I've been busy as hell lately. You see I'm in the Advanced Math class in school PLUS I'm in grade 10 taking a University course (I'm dead serious) so just those two classes alone add a lot of work for me as a teenager who doesn't want to do anything. Plus I'm writing an original story and I'm having a few problems at home.

Anyways I ain't got nothing to say right now. Like before the extremely crappy copy is being posted for reviewers then I'll put the betaed chapter up later so you can appreciate Jess's hard how many mistakes I know I make

Thank you to:

Holimontski – That's the point! I'm trying to keep them in character while giving them my own twist because we all know I'm no JKR, meaning I don't know their full personalities. I don't always like the fics where Ron is EXTREMELY jealous so I decided to ease it down a bit.

ElavieBlack – Thank you a lot! I'm trying to be a good writer, or the best I can at least

Destined Enchantress – Yes I agree, some stories where they fall for each other too fast just doesn't seem that real, you know the old saying 'slow and steady wins the race. Lol thanks but I'm doing pretty good with school as it is...

GatomonandKarifan – Aww thank you. You have a cold too? So do I...and the rest of my school too now that I think about it! I'm serious here.

Carn – You're insane you know that? No they can't because that won't be any fun! You want to know what's going to happen, just keep reading!

Grantsbeetle – thank you for all the interesting reviews...especially for chapter 15

Athenakitty – yeah I guess. They know it wasn't his fault. No Percy wasn't a Death Eater. Mrs. Weasley was distressed, that's all. What Bee? Umm...yes the bees will get Snape, Flich and Mrs. Norris (looks confused)

Hpfanchrissy1502 – Thank you

CastusAlbusCor – I know eh?

Chibi-NarutoKawaii – Thank you

UltimateHPfreak – took the words right out of my mouth!

Idiot with reason – Yeah you can change subjects really fast! Yes you're completely insane but not as bad as one girl I know. She was walking up from the bus stop on the opposite side of the street from me and she was ARUGING with herself, nobody else was there...it was scary...but anyways...being a little insane at times show creativity!

LJstagflower4e – Glad to see my stupid mistakes amuse some of my readers rather then annoying them...

Urazz – Oh Snape normally would have but Harry gave him a piece of his mind at Grimmauld place so now he's going to do things...the snaky way (No he isn't going to go work for Voldemort again)

Shinji-Higurashi – lol that was the main part of that chapter...

TanAlike – I can't remember either, what was the word? lol, I'm so stupid

HHromancefreak – Thank you

Amity-Star – Maybe you do, maybe you don't, oh the rumors is right...

Gorav1 – Yeah, if I told people who the Half Blood Prince was that would ruin the story...or at least the suspense leading up to the end

I'm Not the Weakest Link – No I don't have a specific time to update. I could be done within a day of updating, a week of updating or a couple weeks, I never know. It depends on what's going on, how much homework I have, what mood I'm in and what the chapters about

SirIsaac – Sorry to say but Tonks' father wasn't a muggle; he was a muggle-born, which to a Pureblood is just as bad as a muggle. Nobody ever said what Mr. Tonks ever did for a living so I just made him an Auror. THAT'S why her mother was kicked out of the family, because she married a 'mud-blood'. This is FANFICTION! It doesn't have to be Canon. If all fanfics were Canon a lot of them wouldn't be very interesting. I don't think its fair to judge a fic before reading the whole thing...

333,halfdevil – was it? Was it really? LOL! Don't mind me I'm beyond strange

Drake Symthe – Hey go ahead, ask the questions, you never know, it might help improve the later story line some

Aorken – Yeah I did notice that too. Mark Evans, who knows he might be a key character later on or something (hint)

Wise Man Domingo – I know eh? Thank you, and you don't need anything interesting to say as long as you get your point across

Howling wolfl – ohhh nice guess, but no. OK everyone who actually reads these take note, Lily Potter is NOT, I repeat IS NOT Harry's guardian! Although it was a pretty good guess...

John Relkin – lol! Thank you but no, I'm just a crazy 15-year-old Canadian high school student!

Hermionestwin1990 – Thank you

LadyLuck13 – Thank you for all the reviews! You asked me a question about the Gringotts thing but I'm sorry to say that I'm not going to say anything else about it, just keep it in mind, you never know when something like that might pop up if it does.

Thanks for all the great reviews guys! I really appricate it!

Please read and review, and be nice if your not...I accept all opinions though.

Krystal Lily Potter