When they finally did reach the burrow, it was very late at night. Mrs. Weasley floated Harry inside, while Fred and George got his trunk. She set him down on a couch. "You'll have to be down here for tonight, Harry. Fred and George decided to blow a hole in Ron's wall, so no one is allowed up there until I can fix it." She got him a pillow and blanket, and she was covering him just as Fred crashed Harry's trunk into the wall. "Go up to bed. Both of you." Fred and George went up the stairs. "Well so much for coming in quietly. Do you need anything Harry?"

"No I'll be alright." Mrs. Weasley turned off the light and followed Fred and George. Harry leaned back into the pillow. He was starting to feel sick. Suddenly, there was a loud sound from outside, and the front door opened. Harry opened his eyes. Someone was coming in the door.

"Harry?" she said in a whisper "Harry is that you?"

"Cho! What are you doing here?"

"I heard what happened, so I thought I'd come check on you -"

"At one in the morning!"

"Well if you don't want me here then I'll leave."

"No wait, you can stay, I guess... but you've probably woken up the whole house." Cho came over to him and knelt down beside the couch. She touched his face.

"Oh you feel hot. Are you feeling okay?"

"No actually I'm not." She smiled at him and put her head on his shoulder. Harry was starting to fall asleep when Cho got up suddenly. "Cho..."

She shushed him. "There's someone coming." Harry sighed. Why couldn't they be left alone? Now Harry could hear it too. Someone, two someones, were coming down the stairs.

"Cho you have to go. If they see you then they'll be really angry that you just let yourself in."

"Yeah I know." she went to Harry and kissed him "Bye for now." She smiled and apparated.

"Harry?" Ron said

"Yeah?" Harry replied, trying to sound like he'd just woken up.

"Did you hear someone?" Hermione asked from behind Ron.

"Besides you two coming downstairs, no."

"Oh well we thought we heard someone." Hermione said "How are you?"

"I'm all right. A little feverish but alright." There was an odd silence, and the two of them just stared at him. "What?" They both looked away. "Wait why won't anyone answer me?"

"Harry we should go back upstairs. You need to rest." Hermione said quickly "Come on Ron let's go." she pulled his arm and they went back upstairs. Harry sighed again. Why was everyone running away from him?

Harry didn't go to sleep after Ron and Hermione had left. Why was everyone leaving him? Did they know something he didn't? Then he heard more voices in the upstairs hallway. It was Ron and Hermione, again. Harry closed his eyes, but he could hear them come into the living room and go into the kitchen. They were arguing about something. He tried to hear what they were saying.

"Ron you're being stupid. Harry would never -"

"Well how do we know? He could be some kind of sick maniac who enjoys pain-"

"Ron listen to yourself. Harry would never do that. He could never-"

"My point is that we don't know. How do they know it was really a vengeance deamon? I mean, the only one who can see it is the person that gets attacked. And no one actually saw him being attacked-" Harry stopped listening. So that was it. They thought that he had hurt himself, that there never really was a deamon.

"Calm down you're going to wake up the whole house." Hermione was saying "Well I just found out that my best friend could have tried to kill himself and you think I'm supposed to be ok with that?"

"Ron he couldn't have done that to himself."

"And how do you know? Did you ask?"

"No. I saw the cut on his leg. No one could have made such a clean cut with a knife or something like that. If he had really cut himself, then there would be places where the skin was torn. It would take more than one time to make a cut that deep." They were both quiet. Harry could hear sobbing, which probably meant that Hermione had started crying. "Ron... he wouldn't... I mean... he couldn't..."

"Let's just leave the whole thing alone until morning." Harry heard them come back through the living room and go back upstairs. When he peeked open his eyes to check, he could see Ron's arm around Hermione as they walked upstairs.