Thank you.

Hermione looked at those two words, and then at Kyla's grateful face. Kyla had given Hermione a note while they were both at the library the following Monday. Hermione felt a tug of guilt in her gut and said, "We still aren't friends."

Kyla nodded, and Hermione went on. "Don't think I stopped to help you because I like you or tolerate you. I would have done the same thing for anyone else." Kyla nodded in understanding. "I just want to make sure you know that I still don't like you."

Kyla nodded and went back to working on her homework.

"The Hogsmeade trip begins in ten minutes, if you're late then you won't be able to come at all," Hermione warned everyone in the Gryffindor common room.

"You ready?" Ron asked Kyla.

Kyla smiled and gave him a thumb up. However, the second Ron had turned his back on Kyla, Kyla dropped her smile and rolled her eyes, something only Harry noticed. Harry gave her a questioning look, but said nothing.

Ron started talking to Kyla about all the things to be seen in Hogsmeade, while they were walking to Hogsmeade. Kyla nodded and smiled at everything he said. Hermione glared at those twos and Harry whispered, "Do you think we should trust her?"

"No," Hermione told him. Then she went up to Kyla, pulled her into a friendly embrace and asked, "Ron if you don't mind, can I borrow Kyla for a moment?"

"Why?" Ron asked.

"I just want to do some girl things with her," Hermione told them. Harry looked at her curiously. In responses, Hermione smiled and winked at him.

"I guess. Do you guys want to meet somewhere later on?" Ron asked

"How about in a hour at Three Broomsticks?" Hermione suggested, they nodded and Hermione lead Kyla away.

"I think I know a perfect store we can go to," Hermione told Kyla with a cheerful smile. Hermione led Kyla into a giant bookstore, and told her, "This one of the top ten bookstores in all of England."

Surprisingly enough, Kyla picked up a book and looked like she was enjoying herself. Hermione notice someone come in the door and told Kyla, "I'll be right back."

Kyla nodded and Hermione walked over to the person. "I about time."

"Sorry, I got held up," Zabini told her.

"Ron is going to be Three Broomsticks in about forty minutes, I want him to see her with you," Hermione told him.

"I will make sure we are there in forty minutes," Zabini told her with a smile. Then he asked, "You know what to do?"

"Of course," Hermione told him. She walked over to Kyla and said, "Hey Kyla."

Kyla looked up at Hermione and nodded. Hermione smiled extra large and said, "I just ran into Zabini, and he said he's in your Muggle Studies class."

Kyla nodded, wondering where this was all going.

"Well, he was just talking about what a good time you two have together, so I would completely understand if you wanted to hang out with him instead of me," Hermione told.

Kyla went to shake her head no, but Zabini walked up to them and said smoothly, "Hi Kyla."

Kyla smiled and nodded weakly.

"So Kyla, you want to get out of here?" Zabini asked. Kyla went to say no, but she saw Hermione exiting the bookstore and there was nothing she could do but nod.

"Why do you think Hermione wanted to go off with Kyla?" Ron asked Harry at Three Broomsticks.

"Got me," Harry told her.

"Hi guys, sorry I'm late," Hermione told them sitting down next to Ron.

"Uh, Hermione," Ron started looking at her like she had an extra head. "Where's Kyla?"

"Oh, she said something about going off with her Ravenclaw friend or something," Hermione told him.

"She said that?" Ron asked.

"Well, she implied that she rather spend time with them then me," Hermione told him.

The door open and Hermione looked at it eagerly, but stopped when she saw it wasn't them. The group that just entered came in and sat at the table behind the trio and started talking about politics. The door opened again, this time it was Zabini and Kyla. Hermione smiled as she saw them and nodded towards a table across from her own. Zabini nodded and led Kyla towards the table.

At first Ron didn't see them, and went on talking to Harry about Quidditch. Ron glanced over to look for the time and that's when he saw them. Kyla was smiling while Zabini talking to her. Zabini reached out and touched her arm very casually. Ron's face dropped and then he stuttered, "I, I, got to go. I forgot a project I need to do."

Then he left, leaving Harry very confused. Harry looked at Hermione and asked, "Do you know why he left so quickly?"

"Look over there," Hermione told him.

Harry looked and noticed Kyla with Zabini. Kyla seemed to sense the eyes on her, and she looked around. She spotted Harry and Hermione looking at her. She smiled at them, but then her smile dropped off her face and it was replaced by a look of pure horror. She quickly turned her head away from them. She took her bag and dropped it on the floor. She went to retrieve her bag and hide under the table. Hermione and Harry watched this curiously, thinking the worse. Zabini looked confused and stuck his head under the table.

"Um Kyla, if you want to go somewhere private we can," Zabini told her.

Kyla dropped her mouth open in disgust and got up quickly. She glared at him with disgust and raised her hand up, as though to slap him. She dropped her hand and just walked out of there, hiding her face from Harry and Hermione. As Zabini watched her walk out, he looked towards Hermione and glared at her. Hermione shrugged her shoulders and said, "Uh Harry, I'll be right back."

Hermione got up and chased after Kyla. Someone from the table behind Harry also got up and left in the direction of Kyla. Hermione found Kyla outside, taking deep breaths. Hermione went up to her and asked, "What's wrong? Why aren't you in there with Zabini?"

Kyla glared at her for a brief moment, and then looked away quickly. Kyla took some more deep breaths, and then was ready to leave. Kyla stood up, flattened her cloths and was about to leave when Hermione called out, "What is wrong with you? You are such a freak."

Kyla whipped around, and saw pale blue eyes staring into her own eyes, piercing her heart. Kyla couldn't breathe for a second, and she started to tremble as she said slowly, in a grave tone, "Backstabber."

Hermione looked at Kyla confused. Why couldn't Kyla look me in the eye when she called me a backstabber? Hermione wondered. Hermione just shrugged it off, and turned around bumping into a strange man. "Oh, excuse me," Hermione said.

The man just mumbled something, staring off in a direction. Hermione went back in Three Broomsticks, and shook her head at Zabini. He gave her an evil eye, and then stormed off. Hermione sat down next to Harry who was listening intently to the conversation behind him. Hermione looked at him in shock and scolded, "Harry, stop. That's rude."

Harry shhed her and Hermione started to hear some of the conversation also. "So no trace of her at all?" A boy with brown hair that had bounce in it asked. The boy was around Hermione's age.

"No Jonathan no sign of Kyla at all," an older man said.

Hermione's eyes opened when she heard the name Kyla. The man Hermione had bumped came in, and the brown hair boy, named Jonathan, asked, "Trevor, where did you go?"

"I need some fresh air," he told Jonathan. "What were you talking about?"

"Kyla," an old woman with gray, white hair, held up in a tight bun, said.

"Uhh, Jonathan," Trevor started. "I saw this store that I think you would like."

"Really?" Jonathan asked.

"Yeah, come on, I'll show it to you," Trevor said and then the two of them left.

"Why did she have to marry that idiot?" the woman asked.

"One good thing about her disappearances," the man told them, "we won't have to deal with that idiot again."

"Yeah because we are going to lose our jobs," a slightly younger man reminded them. Then he glared at the woman and asked, "Remind me again, whose bright idea was it that Kyla would be easier to control then her parents?"

"How could I have known the little brat would get herself kidnapped?" the woman spat at him. Then she turned to the older man and asked, "Whose idea was it to get the O'Connors anyway?"

"I said get Danniel, not his daughter," the older man informed them.

A young girl, who hadn't spoken at all during the conversation, cleared her throat and said, "Let's stay in the present. Helen and Loman O'Connor are dead, their daughter Kyla disappeared. Meaning we are out of jobs if we don't find her."

"Thanks for being positive Renny," the younger man said sarcastically.

"We need to be realistic, Daley," Renny told him.

"Ciannait, do you have any suggestions on how to find Kyla?" Daley asked the older woman.

"Maybe we shouldn't have killed Kyla's parents," Ciannait told them with a laugh, which the two younger ones joined in on.

"Take this seriously," the older man told them all. "If the people ever found out that we killed them, we get killed." They all quieted down and he said, "Now, we have to find Kyla O'Connor by April 28th, or we lose our positions."

They all mumbled in agreement, and started to leave. Harry quickly said, "So about that potion we just made, I don't think we were supposed to add that wolfsbane."

"Yes Harry we were," Hermione told him. Then when the group left she whispered, "Do you think they were talking about Kyla?"

"I don't know," Harry lied.

"Kyla O'Connor, I knew that name sounded familiar," Hermione told him in a triumphant voice. "I have to go Harry. I need to do some research."

As Hermione ran out, Harry called after her, "Wait, why was Zabini glaring at you like that?"


A/N: woot, woot! I updated! I would thank everyone who reviewed but out of time! sorry, will next chapter, hope that is some! please review!