Chapter 7: The Task at Hand

The days leading up to the designated day flew by a lot faster than expected, and I felt it came up to slowly. Professor Dumbledore and Ron were getting extremely suspicious of me, and I tended to spend most of my free time with Hermione, trying to avoid Ron and Dumbledore, or trying to avoid all three of them. When the appointed time and day came upon me, I met up with Hermione in the common room.

"So, we really gonna do this?" Hermione asked blankly.

I nodded. "What are you planning to do to keep him distracted?"

"Easy," she said pulling out a letter and handing it to me.

I unfolded the letter quickly and read it. It was written to Dumbledore himself and it was telling him that Remus needed to speak with him, at his house. I smiled and looked up.

"This should work extremely well," I said smiling wider.

"I thought it would," she said matching my smile.

"Thanks," I added embracing her in a hug, which she returned.

We pulled apart and Hermione headed off the owlery to send the letter, while I ran up to my dorm to retrieve my invisibility cloak. I threw it on and went quickly to the statue guarding Professor Dumbledore's office, praying he'd leave that way instead of by flu powder.

After what seemed like hours of waiting in the shadows, Dumbledore emerged from his office in a travelling cloak and walking quiet fast. I prayed silently that Hermione's plan would actually work, knowing deep down that it would, or should at least, unless I screwed it up somehow. When I could no longer see him I quickly went to the statue and muttered the password, jelly bellies, and climbed up to his office.

Once inside my eyes darted straight to where I had spotted the book. There sitting on the top self of the bookcase was the exact book I was looking for, now the question was how to retrieve it. I knew I couldn't use magic, seeing as Dumbledore might be able to track somehow who had gotten it and possibly what had become of it. I threw off the invisibility cloak and looked around. At first glance I didn't spot anything that could help, but a second sweep of the room revealed a tiny ladder that I should be able to use to reach the top shelf almost effortlessly. I pulled it over and stepped up it, reaching up trying to retrieve the book.

My hand brushed against it and I felt a weird sensation pass through me. I withdrew my hand from it and starred at the book. It took only a few minutes to realize how much time had gone by, only. I reached back up and quickly grabbed it, ignoring the sensation this time, just wanting to get it and get out of there. The hard part came next, getting it to Draco or Voldermort, preferably the latter. I quickly put the tiny ladder back, grabbed my invisibility cloak, and left before Professor Dumbledore returned.

I practically ran the rest of the way back to the common room and emerged in breathing heavily and with the book clutched to my chest. I ran up to the common room quickly and went straight to my bed. Luckily no one was in there at the moment and I quickly stashed the book in my luggage. I rushed over to my desk and grabbed some ink, a quill, and parchment. I started scribbling a note to Draco, hoping it was legible as I was beyond rushing. I finished quickly, and to sum it up it said I had retrieved the book and would like to hand it over to Voldermort myself. I quickly folded it and headed to the owlery to have a school owl deliver the letter to Malfoy. I decided it'd look quiet bad if Hedwig delivered Malfoy a letter. As I opened the door of the dormitory I nearly ran into Neville.

"Where are you off to in such a rush?" Neville asked raising an eyebrow as soon as he retook his balance.

"Oh, owlery, I have a letter I need to send out," I said shrugging. Usually I was terribly at lying, but right now I wanted so bad for this to work that I wasn't half-bad.

"Really, who to?" he asked quickly, obviously extremely curious.

"No one in particular," I said with what I hoped was an air of finality and prayed he wouldn't ask anymore questions.

He shrugged and headed into the dormitory. Once out of earshot I sighed. That was close, I had to be more careful while I was in possession of the book at Hogwarts, I had a feeling it was the key to something, although I wasn't sure what. I was going to be sure to question Voldermort when I handed over the book, maybe before.

I quickly reached the owlery, going at a slightly less pace then a run. As soon as I entered Hedwig came straight to me.

"Sorry Hedwig," I said frowning slightly. "I need a school owl for this. Next time," I said stroking her feathers. She flew off angrily, or at least what I guessed was angrily. I sighed slightly and quickly found a school owl and sent Draco's letter off praying he'd get it fast and reply even faster, but for now, I headed back to the common room to work on some school work. Never thought I'd actually says those words lately.

It was a few days before I received a reply from Draco, and I had started to worry that maybe the letter had fallen into the wrong hands. All I could think about was how stupid it had been to send the letter with a school owl. Somehow I had managed to avoid Hermione's questions and mostly everyone else's as well. I was quite thankful for that as I was in no mood lately to answer any question, whether it be school related or non-school related.

I was sitting in the dormitories doing homework, by myself I might add, when I heard an owl knocking on the window. I quickly got up and let it in, realizing it was a school owl. It stuck out its leg and I took the letter that resided there. The owl flew off and I quickly opened it.

Meet me at the Great Hall Friday at midnight. We can go and deliver it to him then.

That was all that was on the letter, but I knew from whom it was from. I smiled slightly, I was going to find out answers and I knew it. I wouldn't settle for anything less than what I wanted to know. I folded up the paper and burned it, so no one else could read it. I was going to be ready for Friday.

A/N: Yes I know this chapter is extremely short, I'm terribly sorry. There will probably be 1-3 more chapter of this story remaining before it is finished, not really sure. Well anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review, although it's up to you whether you actually do or not.