Hermione nearly choked on her tea. Harry and Ron just sat by in shock. Hagrid looked almost ashamed of himself. The trio just looked at him as though hoping desperately that he would jump up and say, "April fools!" even though it was far from April. But he didn't. After a minute Harry found his voice and said,

"Are you serious?"

"Dead serious, 'arry," said Hagrid.

"W-when did this happen?" stuttered Hermione.

"Over the summa," said Hagrid. "You guys remember how I told ya that some of the gians' migh' come if they were treated bad enough by their own kind, don' ya?"

The three of them all nodded their approval. Then Hermione said,

"So they've come looking for refuge?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it," said Hagrid.

There was then a very dense silence. No one could think of anything to say. Harry was shocked. What if the giants revolted? What if they tried to overrun the school? He decided to ask Hagrid,

"Does anyone else know about the giants in the forest?"

"Well, Dumbledore knows o' course. I told 'im las' year. I figured he needed ter know abou' it."

Harry was shocked again. Dumbledore knew about this and allowed it?

"Duh," said that familiar voice, "Dumbledore sent Hagrid. He obviously was prepared to give board to giants if Hagrid and Maxime succeeded."

Harry had to agree with the voice on this. He was pulled out of his thoughts when Hermione brought up a very interesting point.

"Won't the centaurs be mad about this?"

"Hermione, the centaurs are already furious. The fact is that they have no control over it."

Harry could see the troubled look on Hermione's face. He tried hard to see her thoughts. He could not make heads or tails of what she had on her mind. They sat and drank their tea for a while longer before deciding that it was time to head back to the castle. They said that they had homework to do, which wasn't entirely false.

Once they were back to they common room they huddled into their favorite corner. Harry noticed that many people were looking at him. He had a feeling that it was more than usual. He was used to being stared at because of him being the boy who lived, but now it seemed like more people were staring.

He had a hunch of why this was happening, too. For one, the ministry of magic had just recently admitted to Voldemort's return to power and this caused many articles to contain his name over the summer and was still going. Harry had seen many new articles from Rita Skeeter. She had been released from Hermione's captivity. She was now free to write as long as she did not write anything bad about Harry. She had kept true to her word and was writing about Harry's heroic actions in the Department of Mysteries instead. He also noticed that she had somehow found out that Harry and Hermione were an item. She had begun writing articles filled with glee exclaiming how she had been right since Harry's fourth year about Hermione. Harry suspected that the fact that he and Hermione were going out was another reason for all of the staring.

Harry then shook his mind off of the thoughts about the staring and back to the giants. Would this cause any interference with school? He honestly didn't know, but hoped that Dumbledore knew what he planned to have the giants do. Harry didn't dare ask him because he was pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to know about them. Harry decided not to worry so much about them because there was literally nothing that he could do about it.

The rest of the day was devoted to homework. Harry was pleased to see that he was able to finish all of his homework on Saturday. This left Sunday free for him and Ron to discuss the Quidditch tactics for the year. Harry was a little nervous because all of his old team members were gone. He didn't really count Ron because he hadn't really played with him that much. Other than that, Alicia, Angelina, Katie, Fred, George, and Oliver were all gone. One of the best Gryffindor Quidditch teams that had ever played at Hogwart's was gone.

But Harry didn't let this get him down. He knew that Ron was good; and by the sounds of it Ginny was good, too (since she had been using the other Weasley's brooms and practicing on them, according to Hermione.). Tryouts were scheduled for Wednesday. Harry had wanted to take Sunday to practice with Ron and Ginny on the Quidditch pitch, but the Ravenclaws had stolen it from him.

At breakfast on Sunday Harry received a letter from none other than Remus Lupin. It read as follows,

Harry,

How has your summer been? Well, I must say that things here have been very busy. I am sure by now that you heard about Sirius's will. I just wanted to let you know that...well, Sirius has appointed you as the reader of the will. This means that you have to read the will out loud next June in font of anyone that Sirius listed to attend the reading of his will. If you absolutely cannot do this then I have been appointed the secondary reader. I just want you to know that Sirius really wants you to read the will.

Your Friend,

Remus Lupin

Harry then let Hermione and Ron read through the letter for themselves. Harry himself was pretty shocked by what Remus had to say. Harry wondered why Sirius wanted him to present the will. He also wondered why Remus, Sirius's childhood friends, was not the one with the responsibility. Harry did not dwell on this long for his scar throbbed painfully. It was the worst it had been in a while. Harry remembered a feeling of maddening happiness and then he blanked out.

Harry woke up in the hospital wing. His eyes were very blurry. Someone handed him his glasses. When he sat up and put them on the first thing that he saw was Dumbledore staring at him. Harry jumped slightly at this surprise and then said,

"H-hello professor."

"Hello Harry. How are you feeling?"

Harry thought about this for a moment. Then he considered the pain in his knees and the ache in his head.

"Alright," Harry lied. He didn't want to appear weak to anyone.

"Good," said Dumbledore, "Do you know why you are here?"

"No," said Harry honestly.

"Well, Sunday night you just started laughing uncontrollably at breakfast. Then you ran between the house tables with your arms over your head and crashed into a wall. You've been out since then."

"Since then? What's today?"

"It's Tuesday morning. You've been out for a while, Harry. Now, can I ask what caused this outburst? I assume that t had something to do with your scar, yes?"

"Uh-huh. Voldemort was extremely happy on Sunday morning. Something went right."

"Hmmm, that was when his death eaters broke out of Azkaban again. That stronghold is virtually powerless now that the dementors are under Voldemort's wing."

Harry was thrown back by this statement. So they were out of jail? Harry wondered how bad things were going to get now that Voldemort had his faithful servants back...

"Harry, we need to try to find a way to make these outbursts from Voldemort less painful on your part."

"Tell me about it."

Dumbledore then smiled and left Harry. It was then that Harry noticed two people were bobbing outside the infirmary door. One had extremely red hair while the other had bushy brown hair. As soon as Dumbledore was gone they rushed in, much to Madam Pomfrey's distress. She recognized them so she let them in to see Harry as they had so many times over the last five years.

"Harry! How are you?" asked Hermione anxiously.

"I'm much better, thanks."

"We already know what happened, mate," said Ron guiltily holding up something flesh colored that Harry knew was an extendable ear. "We heard you and Dumbledore talking and we already knew about the death eaters. It was all over the news yesterday. So, are they letting you out of this place anytime soon?"

"Hopefully," said Harry. "It'll be a tough job convincing Madam Pomfrey."

Hermione then hugged Harry tight. She was almost in tears on Harry's shoulder as she said,

"I'm so glad that you're OK. Some people were saying that you had gone crazy. I was afraid you'd lost your mind."

Harry was bewildered by this statement and said,

"You don't need to worry about me, Hermione. You don't need to worry."

Hermione cried some more and said, "If only that were true. You've got to face the facts, Harry. You've got Voldemort on your tail specifically. If anyone should be worried, it should be you. How can you live with this sense of fear and paranoia all the time?"

"I guess I'm just use to it, that's all."

Hermione then pecked Harry on the cheek before being thrown out by Madam Pomfrey. Ron had left a while ago. He could see that Hermione wanted to be alone with Harry.

Harry got Madam Pomfrey to let him out early that afternoon. She had wanted to keep him another night. Harry was relieved as he walked to the great hall for dinner that evening. The moment he walked into the great hall, that all changed.

"Hey Potty! Good to see you back! Are you gonna put on another show for us or what?"

It had been the distinct drawl of Draco Malfoy that had spoken these words. Harry immediately turned towards the Slytherin table with hatred burning in his eyes.

"I would watch what I say if I were you. At least I don't have a parent that runs around with a mask on his head. How did it feel to see him sent to Azkaban? I saw Dumbledore trap him. He trapped all of them. Trapped them like rats!"

Malfoy stared dumfounded for a moment before shooting his fiery reply,

"At least I have parents, Potter."

Harry was about to pounce on Malfoy and rip him to pieces with his bare hands before Hermione came up behind him and pulled him away. This caused Malfoy and a group of Slytherins to howl with laughter.

"Hey Granger, sticking up for your crazy boyfriend?"

Hermione just ignored him and pulled Harry over to the Gryffindor table with her.

"I don't know how you just ignore them like that, Hermione," said Harry.

"Simple, I just don't let it get to me. I don't listen to them anymore. I stopped years ago."

Harry pondered this for a moment. She had a pretty fair point.

"I'll have to try that from now on," said Harry.

"Good, now have some food; you must be starving."

Ron hadn't really noticed any of the heated comments that had been passed between Malfoy and Harry. He was very interested in his food at the moment. He was also shooting nervous glances at Parvati from time to time. She was busy giggling with some friends. One of them looked over at Ron. This caused him to blush bright red. The girls giggled even harder.

"Ron, I hope you know that she does like you. She has for the longest time." said Hermione matter-of-factly.

This caused Ron to blush even redder (if possible). Harry then decided to interject,

"You might as well talk to her, mate. What could go wrong?"

With this Ron stood up and walked over to Parvati. He said hello to her and then sat down in the empty seat next to her. This caused them both to blush very fierce and her friends to giggle uncontrollably. Hermione just rolled her eyes and looked at Harry as she said,

"If those two ever get two words across to each other it'll be a miracle."

Harry laughed at this and then kissed Hermione swiftly on the lips. She looked a little shocked at this action, but then she just smiled and said,

"Well, look who's not afraid of the public seeing him and his girlfriend together."

"I...I well, yeah," said Harry blushing.

This kiss seemed to confirm for some people that Harry and Hermione were going out. Neville actually gasped and Seamus said,

"Seriously Neville, you need to read the paper more often."

Dinner was marvelous after that. Harry ate quite a bit considering that he hadn't eaten in over two days. Dessert was just appearing when it happened.

There was a great banging on the door to the great hall. The Fat Friar then came flying through the door. He went straight up to the staff teacher and exclaimed loud enough for all of the students to hear,

"Headmaster, there are centaurs that wish to gain entrance to the great hall. They are hoping for a word with you."

A slight frown came across Dumbledore's face. Harry was sure that only a few people were able to see it. Then he said,

"Thank you for telling me."

Then he rose from the staff table and crossed over to the doors. He threw then wide to reveal three centaurs. The one in front Harry immediately recognized as Bane. All of them looked very grim and were there to discuss something important. Most of the students (aside from Harry, Ron, and Hermione) were staring at the centaurs with looks of awe or maybe amusement. Harry thought he heard Malfoy say rather loud,

"Stupid horses don't know their place."

Then a Hufflepuff girl exclaimed, "They're cute!"

These remarks drew snarls from the centaurs. Bane spat on the floor in front of Dumbledore. Dumbledore kept his composure as he said,

"Hello Bane. Would you like to talk in the hall since you cannot come up to my office?"

"No. We will talk here! You shall keep no more secrets from your people. You know why we are here and you know what we want!"

Dumbledore was slightly taken aback before he said, "I had a feeling that you would want to talk about certain...circumstances. I would kindly ask you to talk with me in the hall."

"No human. We have been gracious and conformed with you before, but now we are through. There are more of them back there. They are destroying our home and killing our people."

"Bane, I am truly sorry for these losses. You must be able to see that this is for the better. What if they were in the hands of Voldemort?"

At this there was, as always, a collective intake of breath from the hall. Bane merely stared at Dumbledore with rage coursing over his face. Then he said,

"We have said before now that we are not going to subject ourselves to the follies of humans. This also means that we will not tolerate these abominable monsters to live among us. Your friend Rubeus was thick enough to believe that they can be trained and civilized like pets. Giants are not play things!"

The hall stopped short. No one dared to speak. Almost everyone (except for Harry, Hermione, and Ron) was completely frozen; a look of fear on almost every face.

"Yes, that's right," said Bane, "Your headmaster is hiding giants from you! The centaurs would like to inform the people here at Hogwarts that if these monsters are not removed promptly then we shall be forced to retaliate against the school."

With that the centaurs marched from the hall and out of the castle, presumably heading back to the forest. Dumbledore seemed to almost deflate as he walked back to the staff table. There was a grim look on his face as he began to start talking with the other teachers.

As if waiting to start, the students in the hall began to whisper excitedly about what they had just heard. After dessert everyone quickly cleared away from the hall and headed back to their dormitories. In light of the bad news, there was good. Harry noticed that Ron and Parvati were walking back to the tower together.

At that moment Voldemort was in hiding as he gave Malfoy his orders. He needed that prophecy and he needed it as fast as he could get it. Harry felt a slight twinge in his scar.