"Did you see the notice on the board?" Hermione asked when she came back to the common room to find Harry and Ron sitting with their homework spread out in front of them. "Hogsmeade next weekend."

Harry nodded. "Yep, less than two weeks away."

Hermione frowned. "Do you really think you should go, Harry?" She asked. "I mean, would that be the safest course of action?"

Harry shrugged. "I can't just sit in here all the time, Hermione, it would drive me insane."

She grinned. "Besides, you want to ask Cho to go with you."

Ron frowned. "Again? I thought you two broke up last year."

Harry shrugged. "We didn't really break up, per se. I mean, we only went on one date, and it got cut off halfway through. Of course, it didn't go too well…" He grimaced, remembering everything he had done wrong on that fateful Hogsmeade trip on valentines day the year before.

"Don't worry, Harry," Hermione said with a shrug, "it will all work out in the end."

"What about you two?"

"Are we going to go down and see Hagrid this afternoon?" Hermione asked quickly, changing the subject. "We should go before it gets dark."

Ron groaned. "Do we have to? It's going to be some horrible monster or something, and I really don't want to think about it."

Hermione frowned. "Ron, Hagrid is our friend. We should give him the benefit of a doubt!"

"What doubt?" Ron mumbled, and Harry laughed. Hermione frowned at both of them.

"We'll go when we finish our Charms homework." She said with such assurance that Harry and Ron knew better than to argue.

An hour later, they traipsed down the hill to Hagrid's cabin and knocked on the door. It was still daylight, but the sky was rapidly clouding over. Harry wanted to say hello to Hagrid, hopefully avoid whatever it was he wanted to show them, and get back to the castle before the downpour.

"Ah, you lot! Good to see yeh! Come in, come in!" He said, ushering them into his home. "I was hopin' you'd come a bit earlier. Oh well, this just means we'll have to skip the tea!" He said cheerily.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other warily. "Well, come on then!" Hagrid said, leading them out his backdoor. He led them deep into the forest. The sky was growing continually darker, and Harry was worrying more and more about his safety.

Finally, they came to a clearing. Ron's jaw dropped, and Hermione put a hand to her mouth.

Harry still staring, leaned closer to Hermione. "Pray tell, Hermione, how did we all forgot about the very large giant living in the forest?"

Hermione shook her head, looking terrified. "I think we were trying to block it from our memory." She whimpered.

Standing in front of them was Grawp, now about three feet taller than his previous twelve foot self, and humming.

"Isn't he gorgeous?" Hagrid asked earnestly. "He's almost got English down. Here, ask him something."

None of them said anything. "Fine, fine," Hagrid said with a sigh, "I'll do it. Grawp!" He called. The giant slowly turned to face them and leaned down.

"Haggar!" He said.

Hagrid smiled. "'Lo, Grawp. How are yeh?"

Grawp grinned widely. "Grawp good." He said, "Grawp want friend! Haggar bring friend?" He looked over at the three of them. They all took a step back. "Hermy!" He said loudly.

Hermione let out a little cry and grabbed onto Harry's arm. "Hagrid," Harry said weakly, "I think we should go."

"Go? Yeh just got here!"

"Yes, but, it's… getting dark. I'm not supposed to be out, and I probably shouldn't be in the forest."

Hagrid looked frightened for a moment. "Goodness, yer right! What was I thinking? Well, lets get you lot back up to the castle! "Bye, Grawp!" He said, turning and waving at Grawp, who looked confused.

Hermione let out a sharp breath as they turned around, but didn't let go of Harry until they could no longer hear Grawp humming. "Hagrid, this is not good." She said.

He looked at her. "Why not?"

"Well, for one thing, it's incredibly dangerous, and you could get in a lot of trouble. I don't think Grawp really has much hope of fitting in."

Hagrid frowned. "Now Hermione, I would think you at least would be accepting!"

"It's not a person, Hagrid!" Hermione cried. "It doesn't need your sympathy! Someone is going to get hurt!"

"Nonsense." Hagrid muttered, speeding up. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to run so quickly to keep up with him that they couldn't talk.

Harry collapsed in a chair when they got back to the common room. "Are we done our homework?" Ron asked hopefully.

Hermione pulled out her day planner and shook her head. "Herbology. And a Potions essay for Tuesday."

Ron groaned. "Alright, alright, lets get it over with."

Harry couldn't concentrate. Too many things were going on in his mind. Too many things that shouldn't have been important at all. After fifteen minutes and about three lines, Harry gave up. "I'm going for a walk." He said, standing up and walking out of the room.

He brought his books up to the dormitory, and while he was there, he picked up the Marauders Map.

Hiding it in his cloak until he was passed Ron and Hermione, Harry pulled out the map when he made it into the hall. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He said, tapping it with his wand. He scanned the map, hoping that the person he was looking for wasn't in her dormitory. Sure enough, he finally spotted the name he was looking for. Cho was in the library.

Harry walked to the library, his hands growing increasingly sweaty. What if she wasn't sure? What if she did indeed have a boyfriend? What if she just wasn't interested?

He took a deep breath and walked in, scanning around for her. He didn't see her at first, so he wandered around the stacks, pretending to look for something to read.

He heard her voice. "Finally," he muttered to himself, but then he realized something: if he could hear Cho talking, that meant there was someone else with her.

"No, I don't think so. Professor McGonagall said we should improve by next lesson, I don't think she expects us to have it down perfectly."

Harry let out a breath. Just a friend asking about homework. He quickly turned towards the bookshelf away from the person that streamed by him, then peeked around the bookshelf at where he could see Cho studying.

"Cho," he said, coming around the bookshelf.

She looked up. "Harry!" She said. "Hi!"

Harry smiled awkwardly. "Er, you dropped this when we ran into each other on Friday."

Cho looked incredibly relieved. "Thank you so much! I thought I'd lost it, and I don't have time to write it again!"

"Well, I looked at it to make sure it was yours, and it looked like-" Harry paused to choose his words carefully, not wanting to offend Cho. "it looked like maybe you didn't really get it. Um, if you'd like some help or editing or anything, you can ask me."

He turned to walk away.

"Wait," Cho said. "I, well, this is due tomorrow, and you're right about it going straight over my head. Do you think, maybe…"

Harry grinned. "Sure." He sat down beside her. "How much time do you have?"

She smiled. "All the time you need."

-----

Harry went to bed happier that than he had in a long time. Unfortunately, he did not wake up the same way.

He did not awake screaming, but he was drenched in cold sweat and gripping the sides of his bed tightly. His teeth were clenched so his jaw was sore, his body rigid.

He sat up quickly, breathing heavily. Slowly, his muscles came out of their atrophy and relaxed, leaving Harry feeling quite wobbly.

He held his head in his hands, pushing his hair off of his face. His scar was beyond prickling. It was practically exploding. And Harry had no idea why. He had not seen Voldemort in his dreams, he had not heard his icy voice.

So why did he react like this?

He slipped out of bed silently and went to wash the sweat off his face. He found himself shivering.

Turning off the faucet, he heard a tapping. He looked up at the window and saw Hedwig trying to push the window open wide enough for her to slip in.

Harry walked over to her. "You have an answer?" He asked, stroking her beak before taking off her letter and reading it as fast as he could.

Dear Harry:

There isn't too much happening here. Well, that's not exactly true. There is plenty happening here, just nothing that I can tell you through an owl. As much as I trust Hedwig, she has been intercepted before.

We haven't been doing too badly here, we've gathered a few more people. Headquarters is always full. I've taken up permanent residence here, as someone needs to be here all the time to moderate everything that happens here, and I don't really have much else to do, what with my situation.

Mad Eye and Tonks have been working wonders at the Ministry. They've been having a difficult time, because now that the Minister knows their position, he is restricting where they can go, what they can do. Even with all that's going on, he's still convinced that Dumbledore is trying to take over the Ministry.

Either way, they are still gathering good information. There are many in the Ministry who agree with us, and while some of them don't want to go as far as being in the Order, many of them want to help.

No new information on Voldemort, I'm afraid. His Death Eaters are still in Azkaban, for the time being, but who knows how long that will last. The Dementors are still with the Ministry, or at least it seems like they are. The Minister still doesn't believe that they could possibly leave our side, but we are ready. I hope.

I can't say more. Like I said, we still don't know where Voldemort is or what he is up to, we just know he is up to something.

-Moony

Harry sighed as he folded up the letter and placed it with a few others at the bottom of his trunk. Knowing he was never going to get back to sleep, he got dressed and went down to breakfast.

Harry passed the Ravenclaw team, on their way to a morning practice. Cho smiled at Harry as she passed him. Good, Harry thought, at least we're past avoiding each other's gaze.

He grabbed a few slices of toast before making his way back up to Gryffindor tower to do some more homework. It was a good thing he woke so early. He wouldn't be able to do much homework that night, he would be spending his entire evening, after dinner, at least, in Snape's dungeon, practicing Occlumency.

Ron wandered downstairs about an hour and a half later. "Harry, what are you doing up already?" He asked, still in his pyjamas.

"My scar was hurting, and I couldn't get back to sleep. So I thought I'd do some homework."

Ron nodded. "Bad dream?"

Harry frowned. "See, that's the problem. I didn't have any dreams at all. I just woke up in pain. My whole body seized up from it, but I don't know where it came from."

They both sat in silence for a moment. "Are you still feeling Voldemorts mood?" Ron asked after a while.

Harry shrugged. "Sometimes," he said, "but this wasn't the same thing. I didn't feel angry or sad or happy, just pain."

Ron nodded. "I don't know, Harry. Are you going to tell Dumbledore?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. It seems kind of silly, going to him every time my scar hurts. Is he even getting new information out of it?"

"So write it down." Ron said. "Get a book or something, and write them all down and give them to Dumbledore every week or something."

Harry's face brightened. "Ron, that's brilliant! I could write down every time my scar hurts, every time I feel Voldemort, every time I have a dream… you're brilliant!"

Ron grinned sheepishly. "Well, I wouldn't call it that…"

Harry punched him as he stood up. "Shut up, Ron."

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Well, no cliffhanger this time around, I am afraid. Yarr, fanfiction is not working, there won't be any responses to reviews today. Of course, that means I can't update today, so it all depends on how lazy I am at a later date. We shall see, we shall see.

Here they are!

M&M: I hope it will get more interesting soon… I've got some stuff coming up soon.

"So long, and thanks for all the fish."

Ten points to those who recognize what that's from!

-unolimbo