Harry's head dropped into his arms, and he stifled an angry scream. Everything around him was falling apart, and he had no one else to talk to. His parents were dead, and so was Sirius. At the thought of his godfather's name, his eyes smarted. Tears welled up in the blue pools, and he cursed himself for crying. Sniffling as quietly as he could, he rocked back and forth on his bed. 'Stop crying. You're weak.' He heard Voldomort's cold voice in his ear, jeering at him. 'SHUT UP!' Harry was beginning to scare himself. Standing up, he ran blindly back into the common room. He heard Ginny's voice calling out to him, but he did nothing to acknowledge it.

In the middle of the room was a large rug, which depicted the Gryffindor sign. In his haste to be out of the room, Harry tripped and fell.

"Harry! Are you alright?" Ginny's troubled face was above his.

"I'm fine. Please, just leave me alone."

He stood up, brushed off Ginny, and began to sprint through the darkened halls of Hogwarts. He had one destination, one place where he could be alone to think. The Astronomy tower. When he reached it, he was out of breath and sweating madly through his robes. Peeling them off, he began to walk around, thinking out loud.

He did not notice that Hermonie was there, but as soon as he turned around, he spotted her slumped figure against the cold marble of the pillar.

"Hermonie!" He said, jumping back. "Um…hi…" He had nothing else to say, for he knew she was mad at him, and he did not want to further agitate her.

"Hello Harry. I notice you have picked up the habit of talking to yourself." Her voice was cold and distant. Gone was any trace of the warm tones he had always known her to have.

He had heard her, though he wished he hadn't.

"I'll leave." He said softly, backing out of the room. "Before I go, I just wanted to say I'm so awfully sorry for what I said tonight. I know it's my fault, and I just wanted to apologize. I hope your feelings aren't to hurt. You aren't boring at all, and I was wrong to have said that." He gave her a weak smile. "It's so difficult not talking to you. You're my best friend, and if I loose both you and Ron, I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't just go and make friends with Draco." He laughed softly, but then shut up as he realized it wasn't funny when she looked away. When she looked back up, she had tears shining in her eyes. When she blinked, they began running down her already tear-stained cheeks.

He noticed her tears and wished with all his might that he could embrace her and tell her everything would be fine. That would be a lie, and Harry didn't normally lie.

"I don't get what's happening to Ron. Nothing I do seems to work." Hermonie pouted helplessly.

"I don't understand either, Ron's not himself." He did step forward and wipe her tears away with his thumb.

"Don't cry..." Harry felt awful. "I'm sure he will gather himself together and realize that we are all best friends and that best friends don't hate eachother."

Hermonie just sniffled as an answer.

"He is completely different than what he was last year." He slouched against the wall, allowing himself to slide down until he was sitting on the floor. Putting his hair through his hands, he closed his eyes. "We all are different, but he is just…I don't even know how to explain it."

"Don't you think that he has the right to be jealous and that is the reason why he is acting out like this? He is trying to get people to notice him, and he will do it any way he can." Hermonie added with wisdom far beyond her seventeen years.

"You're right. It's like suddenly he has become this rebel, not doing his homework; he doesn't even study for his finals, which are coming up sooner than we all wish. He even dresses and talks differently." He sat down again against the cold, hard floor of the Astronomy Tower. The night sky was littered with stars, and he wished he could just disappear and become one of them.

"Do you think he is scared of being close to you because of you-know-who." After a brief pause, she added another thought in a barely audible voice. "Do you think you-know-who has taken control of him?"

Harry didn't even blink at the sound of those words. "Maybe...that is a possibility. Maybe he knows he can't take over me, so he went for Ron as revenge." He shuddered, and covered his ears for a brief moment. "There are instances of Voldormort taking over people's friends and family as a way of killing them." He scowled; just thinking of Voldormort made him want to punch something. Slowly and surely, Voldormort was taking everything that he had ever cared about. First his parents, then Sirius, and now maybe Ron. He glanced up to see how his friend would react to the mention of "his" name. It was definitely not something she wanted to hear. Harry had always been the only one of the trio that was comfortable enough to say Voldormort's name out loud.

He noticed her reaction and felt badly for bringing up the wall of fear that had once controlled their lives. "Well, no worries. I think he is out of power now. There shouldn't be any immediate threat. He would need a great deal of energy to take over Ron, and he couldn't do it unless Ron wanted him to, and that's highly unlikely."