chapters 18-21 have been reposted after I made some corrections to the story line.

Death Letters and Secrets

The next morning at the Great Hall, the owls as usual arrived with the mail. Nothing was dropped on Harry's plate, but Ron did get a letter, a black one. He opened it and read it curiously. The Hall suddenly grew very quiet; then people began to mutter. Harry began to pick up two words that were being repeated throughout the students, "Death letters?" And then someone from across the Hall let out a shriek. Everyone turned to look, Ron a little slowly. The girl was from Hufflepuff and she was crying very hard squeezing a black envelope in her hand. Dumbledore stood up, and Harry knew what had happened. He looked across at his sister; they exchanged glances, and he knew she understood too. Somebody had died. They would be one of Voldemort's first victims that had ties to Hogwarts. Ron suddenly faced forwards again, stunned. Harry noticed Ron's odd expression. "Are you okay?" Harry asked. Ron didn't move. And then violently he threw up. Harry backed away and grabbed Ron to take him to the infirmary. Dumbledore watched them go. Halfway to the Hospital Wing Ron stopped him. "How is Mum going to be?" he stumbled over the words. Harry wasn't sure if Ron had gone insane or what.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"P... Percy," Ron broke into tears and fell to the floor.

"What's going on, Ron?" Harry pleaded suddenly feeling sick at his stomach. Ron slowly looked up at him with horrified eyes. He opened his mouth a bit and muttered, "Percy's dead." Harry jolted back with shock on his face.

"What?" he asked more as a statement.

"Percy... was in the Ministry and he tried to protect Fudge... "

"Oh, Ron, I'm so sorry. I... I," he couldn't say anything. He sat with his friend in the hallway before finally managing to get him into the infirmary.

A few days passed in which nothing happened to take Harry's mind off Ron. His family had written him all sympathy notes, but they insisted that he stay at Hogwarts for the time being. Ron was furious; he would've killed to comfort his mother who was in shock. And he almost did. It happened when McGonagall decided to send Harry's sister to retrieve Harry from the infirmary so she could give him some information from Grimmauld Place. Sarah would've refused had it been anybody other than McGonagall; but off she went to find Harry. She heard he had been with his friend, so she decided to check the Hospital Wing first. She opened the door quietly. Upon seeing him, she tried as quietly as she could to call his name without Ron noticing. Harry heard her and looked towards the door. She beckoned him over with a finger.

"What are you doing here? It is illegal for you to be here," Ron yelled angrily. Seeing that her cover was blown she went ahead and walked into the room.

"Harry, it's urgent business," she said.

"Liar! You just want Harry to leave; that's all you ever think about, how to hurt a person worse! If I weren't tied down... " he dragged on.

"McGonagall said it was about Grimmauld Place," she said to Harry.

"How do you know about that?" Ron said carefully. Then his eyes widened. "I know who you are! You were brought here by Voldemort to spy on us... you're probably involved in my brother's death... "

"That's a bunch of bull... " she began.

"Oh, shut up! I've had enough of you!" And with that, he pulled out his wand and yelled, "CRUCIO!" The spell only hit her for a minute and ended up throwing her a few feet back. She didn't even fall.

"Obviously your first time," she said quietly. "Neville could've done better. But I bet you've never felt half the pain you just gave me. Well, you want to feel it? You wanna?" And for the first time, Harry felt her bluffing.

"I don't care anymore. Kill me!" he dared. He watched her.

"No, because I'm on your side. And I am sorry your brother died. But right now, Harry must have a talk with McGonagall," she could tell Ron didn't trust her, and that if he had the guts to kill her, he probably would. Harry nodded at Ron.

"I'll be right back," and followed her to the door.

"Wait," Ron yelled. "Why didn't she send a Gryffindor like Hermione?"

"Because there are other trustworthy students that are less obvious when sneaking info." And with that she slammed the door making Madam Pomfrey run out to Ron's side and curse them for being so loud.

Harry followed Sarah quietly down the many halls until they arrived at McGonagall's office. She allowed them entrance and they seated themselves infront of her desk.

"We have acquired news on where some of Voldemort's Death Eaters have been hiding out. It's a well disguised old mansion. We wouldn't have known about it had it not been for Lucius Malfoy's help."

"Can you trust his information?" Harry asked immediately. Sarah turned to give him a stern look.

"Right now, Potter, we have to. We have no other leads. Now," she continued hurriedly, "it won't be long before Dumbledore and the others deicide to go in. So I'm warning you, things can happen; we're afraid the Death Eaters will make their move soon. We have to find them before they..." She had paused with a worried glance on her face. "Well, that's all I have to say, so you'd better be on with your classes." And she shooed them out with a wave of her hand. Harry looked at Sarah before they departed. Unlike him she did not seem concerned, but determined. Determined, hard, severe, whatever it was, she was building a plan. Harry didn't really want to know what she was thinking; it would probably just frighten him more. So he left her silence.

Ron left the Hospital Wing two days later, but he was still removed from socializing. He tried to be talkative, but for him it was hard. And yet, Hermione's secret got the better of him.

"I know that Hermione's been real nice to us and all that, but I still think she should tell us her secret," persuaded Ron.

"You know she won't," replied Harry.

"But why can't she tell us?" asked Ron confused. "Do you have any ideas that might get her to tell?"

"No," Harry said.

"Maybe I could hypnotize her, or something," Ron was thinking.

"You could give her Veritaserum, or maybe you could pay off a Legimens to read her mind," Harry added.

"Great idea, Harry! I like the Veritaserum best though. Since you know Sarah, do you think you could get her to steal some? I bet she'd love to," Ron's expression was changing with the topic of Sarah.

"Are you serious?" asked Harry surprised.

"Yeah, I'm dying to know her secret, and we do have a right to know," he assured Harry.

"Well, I'm not going to guarantee that I'll even take part in this, but if I do I guess I could ask Sarah for some help."

"Good," Ron was nodding with a huge grin.

"That's not really fair, though; we'll be cheating our own friend into telling us something that might be personal to her. First, you should just threaten her with Veritaserum, and then if she doesn't consent to tell you, you could give it to her. I wouldn't, not on one of my friends." Ron thought about this for a while.

"I think if we really convince her we'll use it, she'll tell all," and with that Ron headed to find Hermione and discuss her secret.

He found her in the library looking up some spells for extra credit. Ron walked up to her and folded his arms.

"We've got a score to settle," he stated roughly.

"Oh," she looked up suddenly. "I didn't see you there. Is there something you want?"

"Yeah, if you don't tell us what you're hiding, I'm going to force it out," he said.

"How's that?" she said confident that he was bluffing.

"Veritaserum," he stated. She looked at him surprised. She looked at Harry.

"And how do you propose to find any?" she asked smartly.

"We've got friends in... high places," Ron replied.

"Yeah right," she said turning to ignore them.

"Actually, in this particular situation, we do," added Harry. She faced him again.

"Why do you want to know so badly?" she asked.

"We care about you..." started Harry.

"... and we don't like being left out," finished Ron. She sighed. She stood in front of them for moment and studied them. She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"Must you really know?" she tried.

"Well, let me think..." Ron began sarcastically.

"Oh, all right! Follow me," she said testily. "It has to do with Mr. Collings' disappearence."

"Yeah, we never figured out who did that curse," pondered Ron. Hermione turned immediately to face them.

"It was me," she blurted. Harry and Ron both stopped with held breath.

"What do you mean, Hermione?" asked Harry unsurely.

"I cast the spell to prevent him from becoming part of Hogwart's faculty."

"And you put him in a coma for six weeks!" said Ron in shock.

"Well, I... I had to make sure he wouldn't come back," she replied.

"But why?" asked Harry. Hermione took a deep breath.

"Dumbledore had been looking for a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for quite a while as usual; and when he didn't find anyone to volunteer, Cornelius Fudge offered to let Dumbledore borrow Collings. Professor Collings used to work in the same department as Lucius Malfoy, you see; and even though he seemed like a nice man, I was afraid that his position here would give Fudge another foothold in this school. I didn't want last year to repeat itself. If Fudge had been able to put Collings in there, he might have tried to take over the school again." She paused for a moment before continuing. "And one day, I was watching Professor Collings, and it suddenly occurred to me that he was under the Imperious Curse. Not all the time, of course, but sometimes when he was walking the halls, I noticed he was restrained. After that, I decided I'd have to take care of him myself, and that's when I hit him with the charm. After a few weeks, Dumbledore pulled me aside and said that he had found evidence that someone in Voldemort's circle was controlling him. He was dangerous; he could have accidentally given the Death Eaters information or a vantage point for attacking the school and Dumbledore. I knew what I had to do."

"But, Hermione, you aren't allowed to attack teachers!" said Ron.

"When's that stopped you?" she retorted.

"Does anyone know about this?" asked Harry.

"No, except Hagrid. I had to tell someone."

"Why not us? Why'd you ignore us?" Ron persisted. Hermione sighed.

"I had no proof at the time that Collings was under the Imperious Curse and I didn't want you to think I'd gone crazy by hurting a teacher. I knew you'd give me a hard time about it anyway, and the more people that know about it the harder it is to hide." She hesitated before adding, "Actually, I was afraid. I was afraid that if someone found out what I'd done, they would also blame you. Since we always tend to do things together, you know? I should've told you anyway, but... I didn't."

"What if you were wrong about Collings?" asked Harry.

"Well, it's too late now, isn't it? I didn't want to take a chance but I had to do it ."

"Well, I wish you'd told us before," said Ron. Hermione nodded. "And that's no reason for you to ignore us." Hermione's mouth dropped.

"I had to keep a low profile! And Dumbledore told me not to..."

"What? Dumbledore didn't want us to know?" Harry said.

"No; he's helped cover for me, and he suggested I not spend as much time with you. Why? I don't know. Go ask him." She folded her arms.