Disclaimer: I admit — I DO NOT own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does.

Chapter Thirteen -

Hermione tore at Ron's shoulders, throwing open the pantry door and diving into the kitchen. Dust was clouding the air, and she couldn't see anything.

"HARRY!" she cried in frustration, hoping her best friend was not the victim of the rubble she was now tripping over, searching for him in vain.

She felt a hand grab her's and pull her. She then heard what sounded like chunks of the ceiling crashing behind her where she had been standing.

"Close one," she heard Harry say in her ear.

The dust was beginning to clear, and she could see a blurry figure, presumably Harry, tugging her towards the massive hole he had just made in the wall.

"Ron and them are still in the pantry — ." Hermione started as Harry helped her into the hallway.

"I want to check this out first," he said.

Hermione could now see Harry perfectly. His robe was a bit torn and there was debris in his hair, but he didn't appear to have any scratches or bruises. The hallway was deserted. The wall crashing must have moved any of the action away from the area.

"I really hope a student outside the kitchen didn't caught in the rubble," Harry said worriedly, taking a quick look behind them, still guiding Hermione down the hall.

Ron, Luna, Ginny, and Neville were beginning to emerge from the kitchen. Ron had resolutely refused to let Harry and Hermione run off to fight what he determined to be Death Eaters without him.

Harry and Hermione could hear the din of fighting around the corner. Hermione gripped Harry's hand tightly. Before rounding the corner, Harry stopped and looked apprehensively at Hermione.

"You've got my wand hand," he said, raising their hands so Hermione could observe her death grip on his right hand.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, quickly letting go and standing awkwardly while Harry pulled his wand from his robe pockets.

She was about to continue making her way up the hall, but Harry strode to Hermione's right side and grasped her other hand with his left.

"Ready?" he asked.

His cheeks were tinging pink as they always did before he entered a battle. Hermione rolled her eyes, "Yes! Of course!" she cried, tugging Harry toward the corner of the hall.

Harry tried to ascertain the spells being used at the moment by the lights that were ricocheting from the corner, but it was no use. Anything was fair game, he decided. He held his wand at chest height and stepped around the corner. Immediately after he took in the sight before him he pushed Hermione behind him, making sure she was firmly pressed between him and the wall.

There were at least twenty helfdares in this corridor alone, rocketing themselves toward the clumps of Ravenclaws. Most of the students had cast shields and were now hovering helplessly behind them as the helfdares pecked away at the blue glows which were becoming progressively dimmer. A couple of students were juggling more than one wand and shouting anything that came to their mind at the helfdares, which probably explained why Harry had heard the Avada Kedavra curse. Several students were lying cold on the floor. Harry couldn't see any teachers on this hall. All of this he took in a couple of seconds, not having time to spare.

With one last check to make sure Hermione was securely behind him, he pointed his wand at the closest helfdare, and with the burning image of a limp, brown-haired, green-eyed Ravenclaw boy at his feet, Harry shouted, "BURN!"

One down.

"BURN! BURN! BURN! BURN! BURN! BURN....."

The helfdares erupted into flames, disappearing just before they hit the ground. A few moments later the hallway was cleared, an ill grey smoke was hovering over the floor. Students began to collapse from exhaustion, some widening their eyes in awe before slumping against the wall and shutting their eyes.

"What happened here!" Ron ogled, having just rounded the corner, sparks emitting from his wand.

"Helfdares," Hermione responded, her voice muffled behind Harry.

Ron snapped his head around, as if trying to place that voice. He shook his head slightly, grabbing Harry by the forearm and tearing him away from his dazed and stony stance, "Mate, you've got Hermione — ," Ron tugged a bit harder to pull Harry away, "against the wall."

Harry snapped out of his reverie and looked alertly from Ron to Hermione, "You both all right?" he asked, anxiously.

"I might ask you that same question," Hermione said, "It must be tiring using commanding magic repeatedly."

"Not really," Harry replied, as if it really was no concern, "Where are the others — Neville and Luna and Ginny?"

Harry made to run down the kitchen corridor to retrieve them, but Ron caught him in the forearm again, "They've gone down on the other end to see what's going on."

That was when it dawned on Harry.

"Five-hundred. Neville said there was five-hundred. They're all over the castle!" he wailed.

As if on cue, there was a shriek from above them.

"Accio Firebolt!" Harry paced impatiently the thirty seconds it took for his Firebolt to make it unscathed from his dorm room.

"We're going to clear the castle," he informed them.

Similar to when his Defense students had been able to perform the strength and weakness revelation command, Harry commanded that Hermione and Ron be able to use the Burn command. Ron called his own broom (more anxious pacing from Harry)

They jumped on and were just about to kick of when Hermione "ahem-ed" behind them.

"I don't a have a broom," she said with a nervous smile.

Harry grabbed her forcefully by the wrist and flung her on his Firebolt.

"I don't fly eith ---- ahhh!" Harry kicked off the floor and zoomed dangerously through the corridor making a sharp turn at the staircase, Ron close behind him.

"Have your wand ready!" he shouted at them.

Hermione uneasily detached one of her arms from Harry's waist to retrieve her wand. Harry chose that moment to spiral upward. Hermione screamed like Neville when he fell down the chimney, throwing her arm back around Harry and squeezing for dear life. She wasn't sure through her blinding fear, but she thought she heard Harry laugh and yell, "We'll just see how far you get in Auror training!"

She decided as Harry neared another patch of students fighting helplessly against the helfdares on the third floor that if Harry did in fact say that, she would torture him by using big words for the rest of the week. Her train of thought was interrupted by an angry vibration in her arms. She realized that Harry had begun to shout the burning command, and his whole body was racking with anger. Ron was flying beside them, also shooting the spheres of fire — with less precision, however. She drew her own wand to disperse a couple of the strange hybrids that were circling above them menacingly, but as she ordered for them to burn, her own body began shaking convulsively and she plunged into the frightening and deep water.

Harry really hadn't wanted to, but Hermione insisted that he read her the Daily Prophet. She just knew there would be an article about the helfdare attack on Hogwarts. She would read it herself, but she still had a horrible headache left over from her second "seizure." It had been two days since the attack. However, Madam Pomfrey had informed her that the Prophet had not printed anything the previous day. She couldn't believe they would overlook it.

She had a pretty good idea of everything that had happened that day — based on what Ron and Harry had told her: Voldemort had been breeding the helfdares, and of course, on the one afternoon that month that Dumbledore would be at the Ministry, Voldemort had chosen to send the foul things. Four-hundred and sixty-eight — Harry and Ron kept a running tally. Luckily, Dumbledore turned up early and was able to command a few away himself, but evidently (and this Hermione found strange), commanding magic drained him of energy. She herself had had a seizure in the middle of the third floor. Once she had passed out, Ron flew her into a broom closet and barricaded it. Harry had set up some shields so the helfdares wouldn't penetrate the door. They then cleaned out the rest of the castle, ending in a very exhausting day. Ron added bitterly during their story that McGonagall then made them go around and collect the "fallen" students. Thirty-seven, Harry had sighed, hanging his head in his hands. Harry ended the story by shamefully telling her that when all the excitement was over they got her and brought her to the hospital wing. Hermione enjoyed recalling how he had apologized for a solid half hour before pausing long enough for her to assure him that it was fine and that she would have been very angry if he and Ron had dropped everything to carry her to a helfdare infested infirmary.

"I refuse to read this rubbish," Harry declared, making to toss the Daily Prophet out the window.

"No!" Hermione cried, struggling with the excessive amount of pillows on her bed, trying to snatch her newspaper from Harry.

Harry sighed in a defeated manner and smacked the paper down on her bed. Hermione smirked and eagerly opened the paper, hoping she could get a few minutes of reading in before her headache took over, "See, it's not that ba —."

She had opened to a picture of Harry that took up a full page. He was darting around on his Firebolt in a smoky corridor, shouting with all his might, his wand pointed ferociously, strange birds were dive-bombing in the background.

"How did they get this?" she asked, attempting to hold back her laughter as picture-Harry pointed his wand directly at the reader and the picture was momentarily obscured by a ball of light that soon faded.

"Colin," Harry muttered bitterly, "Even while his shield was diminishing ridiculously fast and a helfdare was pecking in the direction of his forehead, he managed to take a shot of me."

"Aww," Hermione cast him an exaggerated look of sympathy before bright points of light began to swim in her vision and her headache staggered back in full strength.

Her face scrunched up in pain, and she squirmed uncomfortably under the covers.

"The headache back?" Harry asked soothingly.

He dipped a washcloth in the bedside water basin, then pressed it against Hermione's forehead.

"Urgh," Hermione writhed, "it's murder."

He cast a warming charm on the cloth. Hermione moaned, "Ah, that feels so much better."

"You've been having these since you woke up from the seizure," Harry said, resuming his seat in the chair beside her.

"Yeah...." Hermione mumbled, "About that. I need to tell you — ." She winced at a stab of pain in her head.

"Maybe you shouldn't talk right now," Harry said uncertainly.

"No, I'm fine. It's just I know that I saw something, but now I can't remem — urgh," she threw her hand to her forehead and tried to grind the warm washcloth through her skull.

"Oookay...." Harry said, bolting from his seat, "Getting a little overzealous, aren't we?"

Hermione opened her eyes just long enough to glare, "Yeah, well — I'd like to see you get inside my head right now, see how long you last...."

Harry pulled her hand away from her forehead and cupped it over her eyes, much to Hermione's indignation. He then took her hand that had been hanging limply over the side of her bed and cupped it to her mouth.

"Now, I want you to stay like that until I'm done with the twenty-seventh chapter of Quidditch Through the Ages."

As soon as Harry had stepped away, Hermione uncovered both her eyes and mouth, "That gives me an idea!"she exclaimed (immediately regretting it – more bright lights.

"What? Quidditch Through the Ages?" Harry asked, stubbornly replacing her hands over her eyes and mouth, "Don't bother answering that question," he smirked.

Again, Hermione flung her arms to the side, "No -- what I just said about you getting into my head — Harry, if you put my hands back one more time, I'll disfigure you — ."

Harry indeed replaced her hands, "You wouldn't disfigure me — it would be too tragic," he joked.

"Legilimency!" Hermione uttered.

Harry's hands fell, pulling down Hermione's by the wrists, "What?"

"It could be useful to us if I could remember what happens in my mind during the seizures – it might help know why they happen, how to block them, whatnot — but I can't remember. However, if you used Legilimency on me, we could see what I see during the seizures."

Harry resolutely placed both of Hermione's hands over her mouth and drawing away, "I'm not going to go probing around your mind. It's not fair to you."

"I don't care!" Hermione cried, throwing her hands into the air in exasperation.

"No," Harry said as if it was his final word.

"You're going to use legilimency on Ginny!" she argued.

"That's different."

"How?"

"I know what I'm looking for with Ginny. We have no idea what your visions look like during the seizures. I might see something I shouldn't."

"Harry," Hermione said earnestly, "you know me better than anyone. It won't hurt anything, I swear."

Harry looked at her appraisingly, "I'll think about it ---- ."

Hermione grinned manically.

"— but, you have to promise me something."

"Anything!"

"You have to shut up for the next couple of hours."

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Fine — ."

"Ah, that would be talking," Harry grinned.

Hermione pursed her lips together but remained silent.

"Now, scoot over," Harry ordered, nudging Hermione's arm.

Eying him warily, Hermione rolled over to the far side of the infirmary bed. He propped himself up against Hermione's pillows.

"Where's Ron — ."

Her question was muffled as Harry determinedly fixed his palm to Hermione's mouth.

"He's in detention," Harry explained, covering Hermione's eyes with his other hand, "and will be for a couple of days." Hermione's lips pulled apart under Harry's palm.

"Why, you ask," Harry said, clearly amused by Hermione's predicament, "turns out he mistook Snape for a helfdare and accidently set his robes on fire."

Hermione, trying to adjust to the uncomfortable headlock, rested her head in the crook of Harry's arm.

"By the way," Harry said softly, "we're having dinner with Tonks and Remus tomorrow night."

Hermione just barely nodded her head so he would know she had heard. It wasn't long, however, that her afternoon sleeping pill took over and she was sound asleep.

Harry laughed to himself, "Do I have news for you when you wake up....."

A/N: Okay! There's a little H/H there for all of you. Not much – I try not to be big on fluff, but who knows.... However, I must warn you it will be a long and difficult road....which makes it all the better. :) Please review! God bless!