Hello all!! Thank you for the great reviews! I love them all! Thanks to SweetChecksDracoLuver for the wonderful review. Its ones like that the make me want to write more! Also I am looking for a new beta. I am sad to see the one I have go, but they feel I can find a better one. If there is anyone who is willing to do this for me let me know. I have the next chapter done, but I won't post it until I get a new one. On with the story!
In the Forbidden Forest
Voldemort sat in front of the fire, staring at it with a small, evil smirk forming across his lips.
"Wormtail!" he yelled.
"Y-yes, my Lord?" he said slowly, entering his masters lair and bowing down before him.
"How is Potter?" he barked at his quivering follower, who was now kneeling before him.
"H-He seems to be fine," he said and flinched expecting to be struck by his master. "But, his girlfriend doesn't," he quickly added, as he saw his master raise his hand, ready to strike.
"What?!" Voldemort yelled and smacked Wormtail across the face.
"M-My Lord, I do not know why Potter is not being affected by the voices, but from our link on the inside, it seems that his girlfriend, that mudblood, Hermione Granger is."
"Interesting," he said, as the smirk appeared across Voldemort's mouth once again. "It seems we have underestimated the connection between Potter and the mudblood."
"What shall we do about it?"
"We?!" he yelled. "I want you to find out more about how I am effecting her and find out why it is affecting her and not Potter. I want to know right away! Don't keep me waiting!"
"I may know, my lord." Wormtail said cowering away slightly, in fear he might be hit again. "I was informed just today, that Potter, Granger, and the youngest Weasley boy are all wearing similar pendants. It is believed to have formed a type of link between the three."
"WHAT!!!!" he yelled and once again hit his follower across the face. "I must know what it is! I don't want to see you until you find out more about it! As for now, I am going to give the mudblood something to really make her lose control - if we get her out of the way, Potter will be ours." he said. "Get me Weasley! I have a special job for him," Voldemort said, as he watched Wormtail scamper out of the room to find him.
"My Lord, you wanted to see me." Percy Weasley said, entering the room and kneeling before the dark lord.
"Yes," he said, trying to contain his anger from his previous conversation with Wormtail. "In two weeks, there will be a ball at Hogwarts and you will attend."
"How my lord? I cannot just walk up to the front door."
"Weasley you underestimate my ability. Just be ready on Halloween to travel to Hogwarts."
"Yes, my lord," Percy said. "I will not fail you. Whatever you have planned for me, I will do. No questions asked."
"You have been very loyal to me and you will be paid for it as soon as Potter is out of my way."
"Thank you, my Lord." he said and bowed down to the dark lord.
"Now, leave me! I want you to go talk with Wormtail and find out anything else
you can about what is going on at the blasted school."
"I will, my lord," he said and left the room.
Back at Hogwarts
Harry awoke the next morning to the sound of Hermione moaning in her sleep. He rolled over to see sweat pouring down her face, as she was moving her head from side to side. Harry placed his hand on the side of her face and leaned in close to her. "Its okay love, I'm right here," he whispered into her ear, as he wiped some of the sweat away from her face. Harry could tell she was having another one of her dreams that was meant for him. He felt helpless. He looked back down at her, to see she was now crying. He pulled her close to him and began stroking her hair. "'Mione. Wake-up love, its only a dream," he said to her.Hermione continued to move around in her sleep. Occasionally, her arm would thrash around and hit Harry in the face, but he didn't care. Hermione began to move around a lot more, throwing her arms and legs around, like she was trying to push someone off her.
"NO!" she yelled in her sleep. "Please, no! Take him and not me!" she screamed.
Harry was frantic. He didn't like that sound of her dream. "Hermione!" he yelled and began to shake her. "Wake up! It's only a dream!" he yelled.
"Don't take him!" she yelled again. "Please no! Take me instead!" She said, as her fist came in contact with Harry's eye.
"Hermione!" he said, not noticing the pain throbbing in his eye.
"Harry!" Ron said, as he burst into their room "What is going on?" he said.
"Hermione is having a nightmare. I can't wake her up," he said, as he dodged her fist.
"Hermione," Ron said, walking over near the bed. "Get up. We are here, don't worry, its just a dream."
"NOOOOO!" she yelled and her body when limp.
"Hermione!" Harry said, laying her back down on the bed. "Hermione? Wake up! Please, wake up," he said, gently shaking her.
Hermione's eyes began to flutter open. "Harry," she choked out, as she began to cry again.
"Its okay, Hermione. Ron and I are here," he said and brushed some of her hair away.
"Are you okay, Hermione?" Ron asked, kneeling down on the floor next to the bed.
Hermione turned her head to look at him. "It was horrible," she whispered and turned back to Harry. "He took you," she said and began to cry even harder.
"It was just a dream love. I am right here. No one is going to take me away from you," he said and pulled her into his lap.
Ron stood up from the floor. "Ummm, well I think I will go back to my room. It looks like you've got everything under control here."
Hermione looked up at him. "No Ron," she said as she tried to steady her voice and shift her body so that there was room for him on the bed as well.
Ron took it as a sign and sat down on the bed next to them. He shifted uncomfortably, not sure of how to sit or where to put his hands. Finally, he found a comfortable position.
He looked over at Harry and Hermione who where looking at him with bemused expressions.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing," Harry said with a grin.
Ron glared at them. "Sorry if I couldn't find a comfortable position. Its not every day that your two best friends ask you to join them in their bed," he said, crossing his arms across his chest.
Hermione giggled slightly and burried her head into Harry's shoulder. Harry tightened his grip around her and kissed the top of her head.
"Sorry to make you so uncomfortable," Hermione said. "I just really wanted you both here," she said and placed one of her hands on Ron's shoulder.
"Its okay," he said and gave her a smile. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Tears began to well up in her eyes again "It was horrible," she said again.
"What was?" Harry asked gently stroking her arm.
"He took you from me Harry, and I just let him. I just stood there and let him take you from me. I didn't try to stop him until it was to late," she said and began to cry again.
"Its okay Hermione. It was just a dream, I know that would never happen," Harry said trying to comfort her as much as he could, when he really felt completely helpless.
"It was so real," she said. "The look on your face when he took you was horrible. You where so hurt that I just let you go. You said you hated me and that you never loved me," she said and began to cry even harder. "He took you too Ron. Again, I let him. I didn't do anything to stop him. I'm so sorry."
"Its okay Hermione. It was just a dream," Harry said pulling her closer to him and placing a kiss on the top of her head.
There was a long pause of silence before Ron spoke. "He is manipulating you," he said. "He must know about the connection between us and is using it against us."
"How could he know? No one knows about it but a few people," Harry said running his hands through Hermione hair and down her back.
"Another spy," Hermione whispered.
"Could be. There are a lot of Slytherin's parents who are known Death Eaters," Ron said. "As well as a few Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. They could easily tell their parents what's going on around here."
"They still wouldn't know about out connection," Harry stated.
"Anyone can see the pendants, maybe they put two and two together," Ron said. "They way you've been walking around the last few weeks Hermione, someone might of said something to their parents."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well if those voices that you have been hearing where really meant for Harry I am sure Voldemort would of had someone looking out to see how he was reacting to them. When they didn't see any effect on Harry they looked at you Hermione," Ron said, looking sympathetically at her. "Sorry. But it was fairly obvious that something was wrong with you. You didn't eat much, you where yelling at people and you would just stare off into space a lot."
"Was I really that bad?" she asked, looking up at Harry.
"It was pretty obvious you were upset about something," he said, trying to be careful not to upset her. "Even Snape noticed something was off with you."
Hermione closed her eyes tightly. "I've got to get passed all of this. If I don't I won't be any good in the end. You mum told me that I am ready, but I have to make the voices stop," she said and opened her eyes to look at Ron then Harry. "I will be there in the end to help. You can't do it with out me."
"I know love. You will be there. We just have to find a way to get Voldemort out of you head," he said and tapped his index finger on her forehead.
"What about Occlumency?" Ron asked. "It's helped you, Harry."
"That's a good idea, but I think we made need more than that," Hermione said. "I think Luna had a good idea about how she reads books. I want to try that out and see if there is anything else in there."
"She didn't see anything yesterday," Ron said.
"But she doesn't know much about the pendants. I think it would be a good idea if we looked at it again. Let's go to the library after breakfast," Hermione said.
"I have to meet with Dumbledore, and you have to meet with Madame Pomfrey," Harry said.
"Victor and I have to meet with Moody - how about after lunch?"
"Okay, but let's meet up in the Room of Requirements instead. That will give us more privacy," Harry stated. "I will tell Dumbeldore we are up there so he knows in case anything happens."
"Harry are you going to tell Dumbeldore about what's going on?"
"Not unless I have to."
"Then why are you meeting with him? You usually meet with him on Fridays."
"I know. There is something I have to take care of," he said. He still wasn't sure if he wanted to tell Ron and Hermione that he was making his will. He didn't want to upset them and make them worry.
Hermione gave him a confused looked but quickly dismissed it. She knew he was hiding something, but he would tell her when the time was right. "We should get ready for breakfast. Thank you, Ron. It really meant a lot that you were here."
"Anytime," he said, got up from the bed, and moved towards the door. "I'll meet you guys in the common room in 20 minutes?"
"Sounds good," Harry said, as Ron left the room.
After breakfast, the trio went their separate ways. Ron left with Victor, Moody and few other aurors to work on defensive attacks, Hermione and the others working with Madam Pomfrey went out to the greenhouse to learn about the specific plants that grow in the forest that can help heal, and Harry went with Lupin to Dumbledore's office.
Harry and Lupin began walking towards Dumbledore's office.
Lupin looked at Harry and noticed his eye was slightly swelled and starting to turn a shade a purple. "What happened to your eye?" he asked.
Harry raised his hand and carefully touched his swollen eye. "Oh this. Hermione accidentally hit me this morning."
Lupin smiled. "Was she a little too rough on you this morning in bed?" he asked and winked at him.
Harry turned bright red and didn't notice the wink. "N-no," he stuttered out. "You know that we have.... well you know," he said
Lupin's smile grew wider. "There is more you can do than that." he said and winked at Harry again.
Harry's eyes went wide with shock, then noticed the joking tone in his voice, and smiled. "Like you would know anything about that," he said with a laugh.
Lupin laughed. "More than you would know, boy, more than you would know."
Harry chuckled at the banter between them and for a moment, wondered if it would be the same between his father. It was quickly pushed aside when Lupin began to talk again. "Are you sure you need to do this?" he asked, as he dodged a few first years running towards the Great Hall, hoping they didn't miss breakfast.
"I am. If I don't make it through the battle, I want to make sure Hermione and Ron are taken care of," he said looking up at him. "And you."
Lupin smiled. "I don't need anything, Harry. Sirius and your parents left me more than enough. You have already given more than all I could ask for," he said as the gargoyle guarding the headmaster's office sprang to life. Harry smiled at him and stepped onto the spiraling stairs after him.
"Mr. Potter, Remus, please sit," Dumbledore said, pointing to two chairs opposite his. "Care for a lemon drop?" he asked, offering the two a bowl full of candy.
"No thank you, sir. Just had breakfast," Harry said as Lupin shook his head.
"Very well," Dumbledore said, placing the bowl back on his desk. "Now, Harry, Lupin tells me you want to make a will."
"Yes sir."
"I have to say that it is a wise decision," Dumbledore said, pulling out a few pieces of parchment out and placing them on the desk in front of him. "We do not know the outcome of the final battle," he said, glancing at Harry, then at Lupin.
"I know sir, that is why I want to do this. If I don't make it and Ron and Hermione do I want them to be taken care of, especially Hermione," he said, looking down at the ground.
"Its only natural to take care of the ones you love," Dumbledore said, with a slight twinkle in his eyes.
"I know that now," Harry said. "So, how do we go about this?"
"I have all the documents right here," Dumbledore said, pointing to the stack of papers in front of him. "All you have to do is say who gets what and the documents will write themselves. After you are done, you will sign it, as well as Lupin, whom is the witness to this."
Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Take you time Harry," Lupin said and placed a hand on his shoulder. Harry opened his eyes, looked at Lupin, and smiled. He was lucky to have him in his life, Harry thought.
"Before I start, is there anyway you can tell me how much I have in my vault at
Gringotts?"
"You have three vaults right now; 147 238 and 307. They had to move it all to bigger vaults when Sirius left you most of his estate, each vault having roughly 2 million galleons in each. But, I do believe 307 has slightly more." Lupin stated.
Harry's eyes went wide. "I-I-I have that much? I had no idea," he said.
"We thought it would be best not to tell you until after you graduated. Most of your fortune you cannot touch until you do, as said in your parents' and Sirius' wills, as well as a few other things. They wanted you to not worry about money once you got out of school," Lupin said.
"Other things?" Harry questioned.
"Yes, there are still a few items that you do not know about yet, but you will soon." Lupin said.
"Like what?"
"Be patient. You will find out about them soon enough," Dumbledore said.
Harry looked at the two men, then thought back to the earlier comment about how much money he had. "I can't believe it. That's six million galleons - Hermione and I would never have to work," he said. "Of course, she will, but wow...." he said, as his mind began to race with the possibilities of what they could do.
Lupin and Dumbeldore smiled as they watched the emotions play across Harry's face.
"It is best not to dwell on your fortune, Harry," Dumbledore said.
"Sorry, Sir. I just never knew how much I actually had, not that it matters all that much." he said, trying to hide his excitement.
"It is only natural," Dumbledore said. "Now, Harry, do you have any more questions before we begin?"
"No, sir," he said, trying to figure out exactly how to split his money.
"Very well, then."
Harry closed his eyes and began "To Author, Molly, Fred, George, Bill, Charlie and Ginny Weasley I leave you everything in vault 238 (minus what Dudley and Luna will receive). It is to be slip up evenly between you all. I only ask that Fred and George open as many shops as they can, you two need to keep the laughter alive. I also leave Ginny my part-ownership in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," he said and opened his eyes to see the quill on Dumbledore's desk fiercely writing across the parchment. He patiently waited until it was done to continue.
"To Dudley Dursley, I leave 10,000 galleons (it can be transferred into muggle money for you) as well as my pen knife," he said and paused to let the quill catch up.
"You do not have to wait for the quill, Harry. It knows what you are saying," Lupin said.
"Oh, well it gives me time gather my thoughts. This is a lot harder than I though it would be."
"We can take a break if you want to." Dumbledore, said as he placed a lemon drop in his mouth.
"No. I want this over with," he said and took a deep breath. "To Luna Lovegood, I leave any of my books Hermione does not want, as well as 2,000 galleons."
Harry, once again, closed his eyes - he was getting a little too emotional, but he wanted it to be over with. "To Ronald Weasley I leave all the contents in vault 238 and all of my belonging that have to do with Quidditch and Fang," Harry opened his eyes, stood up from the chair, and began to pace.
"To Hermione Granger" he said and paused for a long time. "I leave all the content of Vault 147, Hedwig, my parent's trunks (everything but my father's quidditch stuff. That goes to Ron) , all of my books (give some to Luna, my love), and my photo album."
Harry continued to pace, and brought his hands up to his temples and began to rub them. "Ron and Hermione, I want you two to share the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map. Give it to your children when they enter Hogwarts, when you see that they deserve it."
Harry stopped pacing and looked at the two men. "I think that is it. I was planning on leaving you something, Lupin, but I guess I already gave it to you." he said, feeling his face redden slightly.
"You did, and I couldn't ask for anything more."
Harry smiled slightly. "I do have one more thing I would like to do," he said and pulled two letters out of his robes. "I wrote these to Hermione and Ron and I want to know if there is a way to give them to them if I don't make it though the battle, or if something else happens to me," he said, thinking about Hermione's dream and Voldemort taking him away. He would never leave them, but just in case it did happen, he wanted to know that he did all he could.
"There is," Dumbledore said, taking the letters from him. "I will take care of that for you," he said and placed the letters within his robes.
Harry left Dumbledore's office feelings a little more at ease knowing his loved ones would be taken care of. He began making his way to the Great Hall to meet Ron and Hermione.
He was still amazed by the amount of money he had - he was struggling with how to tell Hermione. He knew she wouldn't care, but she still needed to know that she would be taken care of. He also didn't know if he wanted to tell her and Ron that he made his will.
When he entered the Great Hall, he quickly looked around and spotted Ron and Hermione deep in conversation. He walked over to them and took his spot next to Hermione.
"How are you feeling?" he asked Hermione and kissed her on the cheek.
"I'm fine," she said with an angry tone in her voice.
Harry immediately noticed the anger and could feel she was upset with him as well as another emotion that he couldn't quite pin point. "What's wrong? Did something happen with Madam Pomfrey?"
"No, Harry. Why didn't you tell me what you were doing with Dumbledore?"
Harry was shocked. "How did you know?"
Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "Did you forget about our connection? We both heard what you were doing," she said.
"Why did you do it, Harry? There is no need to, you will make it," Ron said.
Harry was slightly embarrassed. "It's just in case. I wanted to make sure you all would be okay." he said, looking at Ron then Hermione. "Don't be mad. I did what I though was best."
"You should have told us!" Hermione said, stabbing the food on her plate with her fork.
"I was going to," he said. "I just wanted to do it first."
"You didn't have to leave us anything…," she said.
"Speak for yourself!" Ron said. "Its not that I will be happy about how I got the money, but for once I will have some. Thank you."
"RON!" Hermione yelled and the Great Hall went quiet as all eyes turned to the three. "How can you say that! He just made his will and all you can think about is how you are going to spend the money! How could you! He's our best friend!"
"How can you be mad at him, Hermione!" Ron yelled back. "He's doing what he thinks is right! What if he doesn't make it through the battle - at least we get what is left of him! If he didn't make it, the Ministry would take it and sell it all! Merlin knows who would end up with it all!"
"Will you two stop!" Harry yelled "This is not the place to discuss this. Lets go back to the common room, I think everyone has heard more than enough," he said, as he walked out of the Great Hall and quickly made his way up to the common room with Hermione and Ron quickly following him.
Harry burst through the portrait hole and briskly walked over near the fire and turned around to his friends.
"I hope you two are happy!" he yelled "Now the whole school knows that I made a will and I bet they think that I don't think we will make it though!" he said and began pacing in front of the fire. "We are suppose to keep up people's confidence about winning!"
Hermione and Ron stared at Harry for a long time before either dared to speak.
"Harry, we didn't mean to," Ron said quietly.
"Harry," Hermione whispered. "I'm sorry, really, I was just so mad that you didn't tell me what you where doing, and then hearing what you where doing was horrible," she said, fighting back her tears.
Harry stopped pacing and turned to look at his two best friends and let out a deep breath. "I wish you two would learn when it is okay to bicker and when its not." he said and threw his body onto the couch.
Hermione slowly lowered her body next to his. "Sorry. I know you hate it when we do. We are all under a lot of stress you know. It hasn't stopped snowing since yesterday and it's got us all jumpy. Everyone is worried about when he is going to attack. I guess you making your will hit us - it really is coming up soon."
Harry leaned his body forward, placed his elbows on his knees, and rested his head in his hands. "I was going to tell you both," he mumbled.
"We know," Ron said, who was now sitting in a chair across from them. "Like Hermione said, it just got the best of us. We really do need to learn when to argue and when not to. Sorry."
Harry let out anther deep breath. "I guess I will have to explain why I made it to the whole school now."
"No you do not," Professor McGonagall said, in front of the entrance to the common room.
"Professor?" the trio said together.
"We explained to the school that you made it for your own reasons and not because you do not believe you will defeat You-Know-Who," she stated. "I see no reason for you to explain yourselves to the whole school, but you may want to tell those who will be fighting along side you."
"I understand," Harry said. "I will do it at the next meeting," he said and put his head back in his hands.
Hermione looked over at him, placed her hand carefully on his back, and began rubbing it in comforting circles. "Thank you, professor," she said and turned her attention back to Harry.
"I will leave you three to yourselves," she said, as she left the trio alone in their room.
The three sat in silence for a very long time, each thinking about what had happened today and how things could of been different. Finally, Harry moved from the couch, walked over to the nearby table, and flipped open the book Dumbledore gave them and began reading it backwards. Soon, Hermione and Ron joined him.
The three sat in silence, taking turns reading the book, only talking when they were trying to figure out if they found something, usually they didn't.
It was an hour before dinner when Hermione began writing down a few words over and over again, reading them backwards, and then once upside down. She looked at Harry and Ron, then back down at the paper in front of her.
"Holy Cricket!" she yelled.
Again I am looking for a new beta. If you are willing to be mine let me know in a review or e-mail me. Just put the subject as beta so I will not delete it. I hope someone will beta for me, I want to continue the story, but if I don't get one I don't know if I will.