DAY 2 - MORNING

I can tell today is going to be a good, no, great, day. Sometimes you just get this feeling where everything is filled with a perfect clarity, as if you've transcended to another level. I had it when I wrote the final draft of the very first chapter, and the Ron-Hermione kiss. It might have something to do with the baby; she/he kicked for the first time last night! If it's a girl I think I'll call her Lucia, for lucidity. I'll run it past Neil tonight. Anyway ...

Despair. That was all Harry could feel. How could they possibly win? He looked across the forlorn shadow before him straight into Hermione's eyes. He could see his thoughts reflected there. "She's wishing she didn't overhear Ron that day, that she didn't go sobbing to the girl's toilets, then she wouldn't be here", he thought. He saw her open her mouth, try to speak, but her voice cracked and she hung her head.

The soft rustle of robes caused Harry to turn his head slowly to the left. Framed between the shelves, was the scrawny body and twisted, vampire face of Dolohov. He thought vaguely that he should try and protect Hermione, but he couldn't remember where his wand was. An age seemed to pass before he realised it was loosely drooping from his fingers, and he slowly began to raise it, but his irritatingly sluggish brain wouldn't tell him what spell to use.

"Expelliarmus", said Dolohov in a lazy voice.

Harry's wand flew out of his cold, dead fingers, and worst of all, he didn't really care. How could he have left him? Everyone he loved had died. No, not everyone. Suddenly he leapt to his feet, fury filling every fibre of his body, and snatched Hermione's wand from her, "Cru-"

"Protego", Dolohov shouted just in time, but he still shrieked with pain.

This fuelled Harry further, and he sneered, "Lacero!" and a bloody gash ripped across Dolohov's cheek. Harry laughed at it; it looked just like a mouth, echoing the movement of his lips as they formed the word, "Petrificus Tot-"

Just in time he realised what he was doing, and it was his turn to yell the shielding charm. The spell glanced aside, freezing one of the obscene dolls. Harry laughed again, filled with insane pleasure, and said, almost jovially, "Could do with a few more of those, eh?" and shot a beam of red light toward him. All reason had deserted him, he was hysterical, the dolls egging him on, kill him! Kill him!

The pair stared at one another for an infinite second, looking so similar in the half-light. Suddenly they both went to end it.

Harry flourished his wand and breathed the hiss Ron so hated, "Slithardiathhh".

Nothing happened. He looked down, disbelievingly at Hermione's wand. Then Dolohov's spell hit him, and he tumbled to the floor. All his hysterical passion died. He felt tortured, sick, abused.

"You. Loose", grinned Dolohov, voice shaking with excitement. He pointed his wand at the figure still hunched over Hagrid's body, and Harry was filled with complete, total despair. "Avada Kedav-"

Thank God I finally learnt to touch type.

"STUPEFY!"

Dolohov crumpled. Wild relief flooded through Harry, so strong that only the need to know WHO, prevented him from passing out. He rolled his eyes painfully to the side, where the voice had come from. There, framed between the shelves, stood Cho Chang, her hair billowing behind her like an avenging angel.

She pulled the wands from Dolhov's hand and the vision was gone, she was just the pretty girl he remembered, drawing closer toward him under the mistletoe.

Why was he thinking about this, now, of all times?

Cho chucked him his wand and hissed, vehemently, "Hurry up! Someone will have heard you!" Harry stumbled to his feet and pulled Hermione to her feet, shoving the strip of wood back into her hand. She was unresisting, blank, and he shook her, filled with urgency. "Come on! We've got to move!"

She seemed to be slowly resurfacing, like a diver, her face eerily white, and nodded. He grabbed her hand and pulled her after Cho. "It was my wand." She said, matter-of-factly. "You can't achieve something as complex as that without the wand suited to you".

"I know, I was being crazy, wasn't thinking".

"Me neither", and she gave him a weak smile, "Do you remember that day I slapped Malfoy?"

"Of course, we'd never seen you do anything so, so un-Hermione-ish."

"Well right now I'm ready to do something far worse to him."

They caught up with Cho just as she peered round the end of the row.

"All clear. Barq".

She started to move forward, but Harry grabbed her sleeve. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I'm one of the order, aren't I? Its my duty."

"Cho, no, listen. It IS NOT your duty. I'm the only one who can end it, understand me?"

"I don't care. HE MURDERED MY FAMILY."

"Don't you think I know how that feels? GO HOME".

"I don't have one! You couln't help me before, Harry Potter, and you can't help me now! I was the one who saved YOU, but the only person you don't push away is your silly little girlfriend!"

"Shut up, the pair of you! Harry we need all the help we can get. Cho, thank you, but we really must get moving, Ron..."

They both looked like they wanted to slap her, but her eyes held them with bizarre power, the power of reason, and they cautiously stepped forward. The shelves of this row were populated with Teddy bears, all hideously distorted by the half-light. Their black, pitted eyes followed the trio's progress along the corridor, tangled webs hiding their faces with silken veils. "A spindled web..."

"JO, LUNCH!"

"Coming!"

Must remember to save, there's nothing worse than loosing a morning's work. How much do I hate computers? Even more than a plate of baked beans covered in tarantulas, that's how much.