Chapter 21: Apologies.

Harry walked slowly through the halls of the castle toward the Gryffindor common room, feeling extremely bad about what had happened to Amelia. He wished he hadn't gone with Dominic at all, but he knew, even if he hadn't gone, he would have still gotten in trouble for lending the cloak and the map to Dominic for his spying efforts. The more he thought about it the worse he felt. Finally Harry couldn't take it any longer. He felt like he was suffocating under the cloak, panic and dizziness took over. He ducked behind a silver suit of armor, ripped the cloak off and threw it on the ground and sunk to the floor. He berried his face in his hands, breathing deeply, feeling the cool stone walls through his clothing.

"Harry what are you doing here?" Amelia asked as she stepped out of a dark nook behind the suit of armor. Her face was red from crying, her hands shook uncontrollably and anger filled her eyes, "well tell me? Spying again?" she asked as her voice cracked and new hot tears began to roll down her cheeks again.

"Trust me Amelia it isn't that," Harry said as he stayed seated resting his head against the stone wall.

"Trust you?" Amelia asked through her tears, "how can I trust you after what you and my brother did to me?"

"It wasn't my idea," Harry said frantically as he heard footsteps in the corridor.

"It doesn't matter!" Amelia nearly screamed, "you took part!"

"Amelia shh!" Harry said as he stood up and grabbed the cloak.

"I will not!" Amelia said angrily, "you come out here spying on me and act like you have done nothing wrong and now you want to boss me around. What is wrong with you Harr..."

Harry gabbed Amelia, covering her mouth and pulling her into the shadows behind the armor and through the cloak over the both of them. Amelia struggled against Harry's grasp until she saw Professor Snape come into the hall way.

"Don't panic," Harry said into her mind, "he wont find us. When he is gone I will let you go and you can yell at me as much as you want because you have every right to. Now if you promise not to scream and get us caught I will stop covering your mouth. Do you promise?" he asked.

"Yes," she said into his mind.

"Ok," he said and slowly moved his hand away from her mouth but still holding her close to him and as still as he could keep her.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked into his mind.

"Because you have been though enough tonight, the last thing you need is a confrontation with Snape to make your night worse," Harry whispered into her ear.

Both of them stood silently behind the armor as Snape walked slowly through the corridor. He look in every crack, Amelia gasped as he looked behind the armor with his wand drawn and a bright bit of light coming from its end.

"He's going to catch us?" Amelia said fearfully into Harry's mind.

"No he wont," Harry said back to her as he held her, "just don't move."

"I won't" she said as she held her breath. Amelia had taken hold of Harry's arm and squeezed tightly against him until Snape had gone. Finally, when they could no longer hear his foot steps Harry let go of Amelia who sighed a huge sigh of relief. Still under the cloak Amelia turned to face Harry, "thank you for what you did, but I am still mad at you."

"I know," Harry sighed and lowered his eyes to the ground, "no matter how much I apologies I know what I did was wrong and you have every right to be mad at me. I mean if I were you I would hate me too but I just want you to know I didn't want to do this, but I shouldn't have let Dominic use the cloak anyways and I totally deserve what I get for this."

"He's done it before tonight?" Amelia asked as sorrow filled her face.

Harry nodded.

"Why?" Amelia sobbed as she collapsed into Harry's arms catching him off guard, "why is he doing this to me Harry?"

"I think its because he is worried that the same thing will happen to you as it did you mother," Harry said as she wept into his shoulder, "he's just trying to protect you, he loves you too much."

"But Snape turned out...somewhat good in the end..." she said as she pulled away from Harry wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her school uniform.

"Yeah," Harry said, "he kinda did so maybe there is hope for Draco but still maybe not. You have to understand the worry."

"I do," Amelia said softly, "its not like I am in love with him or anything. He just seems like a nice person and I want to give him a chance."

"I understand," Harry smiled, "just because I don't like him, or because Ron, Hermione and Dominic don't like him doesn't mean you can't"

A small smiled came across Amelia's face as she hugged Harry again, "thank you Harry." she said, "I'm not mad at you anymore."

"Good to hear," Harry smiled, "I would have been heart broken if you were," he blushed a little.

"Oh Harry," Amelia smiled, "I had no idea, well I kinda did but I didn't want to go looking or bug you about it," she winked.

"You know you are one of my best friends and you have helped me so much with everything in my life and yet I was always so afraid to say anything to you. Not because of rejection but because of the danger that surrounds my life. Please I want to keep this as secret as possible because I don't want to hurt you in any way or put you in any danger," he said softly.

"Harry, you know I would fight to the death with you and your cause there is no need to protect me," Amelia said sternly.

Harry sighed a little as his eyes pleaded with her to take back the comment, "I don't want you to fight. This is for me to handle and though I sound selfish, let everyone else fight but please you need to stay as far away from the danger as you can. I don't want to loose you to this as I have so many people that are close to me."

Amelia could hardly take the sincerity in his eyes. She wrapped her arms around him again and kissed him gently on the cheek, "no one will even know I exist Harry."

"Thank you," he whispered into her ear as he hugged her, "but we better get back to the common room before Snape comes back.

"You're right!" Amelia said as she started to remove the cloak from over her.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked, "you just want to get caught don't you?" he laughed.

"No, but isn't it like hard for two people to get anywhere huddled together under this oversized sheet?" she joked.

"Over sized sheet eh?" Harry laughed as he ran at her and through her into a fireman's carry, over his shoulder and ran down the hall way.

"Harry!" Amelia screamed and laughed, "put me down this instant!"

"Ok!" Harry said as he stopped outside the Gryffindor entrance, "after you."

"You are such a loser!" Amelia laughed as she walked in before Harry and was greeted at the door by Dominic.

"Its about time you showed up!" He said angrily.

"Oh lay off her Dominic," Harry said angrily as he pushed his way passed Dominic his arm around Amelia and over to the stairs to the girls dormitories, "your invasion of privacy and yelling is just going to make matters worse. Let her get some sleep." he glared at Dominic as Amelia walked up to her room.

"So you are on her side now," Dominic said angrily as he shoved Harry, "what is Draco Malfoy you best friend now?"

"No but Amelia is and you have hurt her enough!" Harry retaliated.

"Boys, Boys!" Hermione yelled, "that's enough! No good is going to come from fighting so stop right now. Dominic you know you were wrong so stop trying to fool yourself."

"I am n..." Dominic started but was stopped short by a silencing charm from Hermione.

"I'm not finished with you yet!" she yelled, "you were wrong in what you were doing, and you are wrong now in arguing with me about it. Amelia has her own life and you can't live it for her. You have to accept that and move on. You invaded her privacy and are trying to tell her who she can and cannot be friends with. Now you either stop making a fool of yourself and only help Amelia if she asks for it or you can continue yelling at your twin sister and smothering her until she completely disowns you and you drive her to the dark side with Malfoy and the rest of Voldemort's pawsy! What are you laughing at Ronald?" she asked feeling annoyed.

"You just called the death eaters Voldemort's pawsy, Hermione. Do you know how funny that sounds?" Ron asked as he and Harry tried to hold in their laughter.

"Well the speech was working," Hermione huffed and slumped into a chair.

"No, no Hermione it was one little slip up you were on a role!" Ron said as he came up to her.

"You are no better Ron you went with him several times," Hermione said angrily.

"Yeah but you didn't tell Amelia and thus let us do it!" Harry stated, "there for you probably should be apologizing to Amelia as well."

"And I will do that tomorrow when the dust has settled," Hermione said she removed the silencing charm from Dominic so that he could speak freely once more, "well what do you have to say for yourself now?"

"Amelia hates me doesn't she?" Dominic asked.

"No, no I don't think she could ever hate you Dominic," Harry said with a sigh, "but she doesn't want to look at you or talk to you or even be around you for a little while. Its gonna take a really good apology on your part for her to even look at you again."

"I did screw up didn't I?" he asked.

"Oh yeah!" Harry, Hermione and Ron all said at once.

"You guys are right," he said, "I screwed up and now I don't know what I am going to do."

"Give her some space for a little while and then maybe talk to her," Hermione said, "and in the mean time we should all probably get some sleep."

"Good idea," Harry said as he headed for the stair case, "that's enough Hogwarts drama for one night."

"Stay tuned for the next exciting episode," Ron joked.

"Not funny, Ron," Hermione said.

"I know," Ron sighed and kissed Hermione on the cheek, "but it was worth a try."

"Anything is going to be for the next little while. This place is going to be like death itself," she sighed and hugged him as they parted ways for an unrestful evening.