A/N - I just want to thank everyone for the reviews. They keep me going!

Chapter 7: New Alliances

The past two weeks had been exhausting for everyone. The Order members were taking turns guarding the house at all hours while the teachers doubled their effort on training Harry, Hermione and Ron. Buckbeak's old room was turned into a makeshift dormitory for the eight Slytherins that had been rescued. Most of the time they stayed up in the room except when it was time to eat, or whenever Snape came. He would conduct the three's lesson in private in the kitchen then go upstairs to the Slytherins and tell them he had just arrived. Harry could tell that having a friendly face around them helped their grieving now that they were all orphans. Ginny explained that Narcissa was the last surviving adult when the Order had found them fending off Death Eaters, all the other mothers were dead. Harry couldn't imagine watching his mother die, he remembered hearing her screams during his third year anytime the Dementors came near him but to watch her fight 7 Death Eaters to save his life was something he couldn't fathom.

Dumbledore spent several hours on the first night explaining to the Slytherins that Grimmauld Place belonged to Harry and that he had a vision that warned them about the attack. He didn't mention the Order but just said that this was a safe house for anyone that needed protection from the Dark Lord. Once they had all gone to bed Dumbledore asked everyone to check on them as often as possible.

"It's not every day that everything you believed in turns out to be wrong," Dumbledore had said.

Harry had taken the responsibility of checking on them several times throughout the last two weeks. The other night someone finally said something besides "no" and "thank you." It was Draco who talked to him but only for a second.

"Potter," his voice sounded a little horse. "Thank you for helping us." And that was it but Harry knew that it had taken a lot for Malfoy to say it. Harry just gave Draco a look that, because Harry too had lost loved ones, meant a lot more then just the usual apologetic looks Draco had received from everyone else. This was the foundation of a new understanding between these two very different men and Harry could feel it. He left the room with a new perspective on Draco Malfoy. There were still many things he had done to his friends, Hermione in particular, but Harry had a feeling this new understanding might be the beginning of Draco's redemption in his eyes. However, Harry knew that was still a long way off.

The events of late had overshadowed the O.W.L's that the children had received. Even the Slytherins had theirs delivered to Grimmauld Place. Harry did extremely well and received the Outstanding he needed in Potions to get into Snape's class. In total Harry received 7 O.W.L's with three other Outstandings in Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against The Dark Arts. He got an Exceeds Expectations in Charms and Herbology, with an acceptable in Astronomy. They curved the grading on the practical of Astronomy due to the events that took place during the exam. Ron also got 7 O.W.L's but he didn't seemed please with them as Harry would have thought and any time Harry asked Ron about them he would just get angry and storm off. Hermione on the other hand was cool as a cucumber, she wouldn't tell anyone her score but Harry figured if she got anything less then an Outstanding she would have flip. It wasn't until their books were picked up the other night that Harry understood Ron's frustration. Ron was at Diagon Alley helping Fred and George while Harry and Hermione were at Grimmauld place working on homework for their extra lessons.

"Harry! Hermione! I got your books for school come get'em!" Shouted Julia from the living room. Harry and Hermione had run down immediately to see what new books they had gotten. They almost had identical books with Hermione having a few more due to the amount of classes she took.

"Well, now we know what you signed up to be last year. Why did you not want to tell us?" Harry had asked.

"I was worried that if you two didn't make it you'd be mad that I did," Hermione had blushed causing her cheeks to turn a slight pink. All Harry could remember was how cute she had looked when that happened.

"Look at Ron's pile," Hermione said in a slight gasp. It was obvious that Ron wasn't going to be in the classes he needed to be to become an Auror. He had a book about muggle warfare, the sixth-year book for divination, another muggle studies book, and the same Charms, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and Defense Against The Dark Arts book that Harry and Hermione had.

"Why does he have two muggle studies books?" asked Harry. He looked at Hermione who had the same clueless look as he, then he glanced at Julia who was trying to avoid eye contact with the two of them. "You know don't you?" Harry asked Julia.

"Aye I do, but it's not my place to be blabbing other peoples business," said Julia still avoiding eye contact.

"Oh come on Julia, please!" begged Hermione who was giving her best puppy dogface. Julia laughed.

"Okay I'll tell, BUT if you say anything to anyone, I know where you sleep and I can make it look like an accident," Julia gave them both a look. "Do you remember the other night when Ron kept beatin' the hell out of you in chess Harry."

"Yeah, I tried everything," said Harry.

"Well, you weren't the only person to notice how Ron kept out thinking you. Mad-Eye was very impressed with Ron, and after the O.W.L's came in and Ron had to choose an alternate carrier Moody asked to talk to him. There is a position at the Ministry that no one has held for a while and Moody thinks Ron would be perfect for it. It's the Ministries Defense Strategist. In times of war this person is a General so to speak, helps plan where the Aurors attack and all those things. In times of peace they help carry out special missions that need extensive planning. Ireland has had one of these for many years. It's strange the Ministry here doesn't." Explained Julia. "In order to qualify for this position the person needs a working knowledge of muggle life, so that the missions don't jeopardize or interfere with their world."

"That sounds amazing, and perfect for Ron," an intrigued Hermione said.

"You know what that means don't you?" asked Harry. Both Julia and Hermione gave him a questionable look. "If we both become Aurors Ron would be our boss," teased Harry. Both women gave him a "that's not funny" look.

"Now you can't be saying anything to anyone you understand, he's still very embarrassed that he didn't get the higher grades and he's also worried you two will leave him out of things because you guys have all the same classes," said Julia sensing they were about to interject. "And yes I know you wouldn't do such a thing but he's feeling very unsure of himself. Wait for him to say something. When he's ready, he'll talk." Both Harry and Hermione agreed with Julia's assessment and she gave them both a warm smile and told them to be on their way. As Harry smiled back there was a split second where he thought he knew Julia from somewhere before, but that moment passed and he and Hermione went back to doing homework.

It was now the night before they all left for Hogwarts. The Order would be holding their meeting tonight to discuss how to prepare for the looming battle. The entire house seemed to be on pins and needles in anticipation of the meeting. Before the meeting, Dumbledore asked to conduct one more Occlumency lesson. Harry, Hermione, and Ron quickly ate their dinner and met with Dumbledore in the living room.

"Thank you for coming. I want to see how quickly you can repel someone out of your head. You all have made amazing progress and we will be continuing these lessons once we get back to Hogwarts. So Mr. Weasley, why don't we start with you, try and break into Harry's mind." Instructed Dumbledore.

"Uh okay," said an unsure Ron. He positioned himself in front of Harry and without warning said the spell, "Legilimens!" Harry was caught off guard for a moment but quickly recovered and cleared his head and completely blocked Ron. When Harry opened his eyes he gave Ron a look, why hadn't he warned him before he preformed the spell.

"Very good!" clapped Dumbledore. "Now Harry would you please do the same to Ms. Granger." Harry faced Hermione and gave her a wink.

"Legilimens!" said Harry in a strong voice. Hermione was putting up a very good fight and Harry couldn't see anything, until a flash of a memory faded in and out. Harry pushed harder to see what it was. Harry saw himself being kicked in the head by the Death Eater. He then felt a flush of panic, anger and concern fill him, he saw Hermione raise her wand and shout the spell he had heard that night. Harry could feel Hermione trying to knock him out of her head but Harry wanted to see more and pushed harder to finish watching the memory. He now saw himself lying on the floor face down and watched as Hermione rolled him over and lit her wand to see his face. She placed a tender hand on his cheek. Harry could feel this great wave of emotion encompassed him, but he couldn't place what exact feeling it was. The memory faded and a new one took its place. Harry was now watching Dumbledore carefully place his body on the bed. Then Dumbledore walked towards Hermione and place his hand on her shoulder.

"Watch over him child, he will need your strength," Dumbledore said as he walked back downstairs. Hermione began to walk over to Harry. He really did look bad, his jaw was swollen and the side of his face was already bruising. Then Harry heard it.

"Everything will be okay Harry, I won't leave you," Hermione said.

Hermione had been the angel he thought had saved him and just as Harry was about to leave her thoughts he caught sight of one more thing. Hermione slowly moved her head down and placed a sweet tender kiss on Harry's lips.

"I don't know what I'd do with out you," said Hermione in the memory.

Harry could feel a great power push him completely out of her head and at the same time heard the real Hermione's cry.

"HARRRRY! GET OUT!" she screamed. Harry was flung backwards and landed on the couch that tipped back with his momentum. He was dazed for a moment but could hear Hermione run out of the room in tears. His heart broke, here was a woman who had saved his life and done everything to help him and how did he repay her, buy forcing his way into her head.

Dumbledore and Ron slowly peeked their heads over the sofa to see if Harry was still alive. The both offered they're hand to help him up.

"Well," Dumbledore started to try and change the subject. "Would you boys mind helping me move the room around for the meeting." The three worked in silence, making Harry feel even more horrible, had they seen him trying hard to watch Hermione's memory? Once they had finished moving things around people began to filter in. Harry took a seat far away from the group as possible. It was another twenty minutes before Dumbledore had Lupin close the doors. Dumbledore took a moment and put a silencing charm on the room.

"Thank you all for coming, as some of you may know Harry had a vision. What we've gathered from it is that Voldemort is moving into the Forbidden Forest, most likely to keep a closer eye on Harry and activities at the school. Do we know when Voldemort is planning to attack?" Dumbledore asked Snape

"Nothing as of yet, but he is sending teams out to gather supporters. He doesn't seem to be in any hurry," said Snape.

"What about the support we've gathered?" Dumbledore looked to Julia.

"It's been a little harder then we thought, but we're making progress. However I do feel like we're not tapping into our greatest resource," explained Julia.

"Oh and what resource is that?" asked Dumbledore.

"The students." Stated Julia. Gasps were heard all over the room.

"We can't make the students fight, that's outrageous," declared McGonagall.

"You wont have to make them fight Professor, a number of them will want to," a voice came from the corner. Harry slowly stood up and addressed the crowd. "We could us the D.A again."

"The D.A.?" asked Julia.

"Dumbledore's Army, last year when he was forced out we created this secret group to help teach people Defense Against The Dark Arts, because we weren't being taught at all. But we'll need more people." Harry trailed off.

"I've got an idea," exclaimed Julia. "We have three Hogwarts teachers and the Hogwarts nurse right here. If we spent the first two months evaluating students seeing where peoples skill level is and inviting those we thought would want to fight. We hold a giant meeting after Halloween, explain to them that we're preparing for a battle and those who are with us will take D.A lessons on Saturday or Sunday. I think we should only take fourth years and up to be in the battle. First through third years can help Pomfrey and protect Hogwarts. What do ya think?" The room was quite for a moment, until Hermione stood up.

"We can communicate the same way we did last year, through the Galleons," she took one out of her pocket and tossed it to Dumbledore, who then passed it on to others.

"You came up with this?" asked Julia. Hermione beamed with pride until her eyes caught Harry's and then she looked down. "You certainly are a cleaver witch," said Julia.

"Well I think that's all we can accomplish tonight. I suggest that if by Christmas Voldemort still hasn't attacked then we move forward with planning our defense, how we will train the students and surveying the Forbidden Forest. All while the Order tries to figure out who Voldemort recruits for his force," concluded Dumbledore.

The members began to filter out, Harry tried to catch up to Hermione but she had been closer to the door and was out as soon as Dumbledore finished. He decided to just head for his room and make sure everything was packed for the next day. He slowly made his way up the stairs and into his room. He fell on his bed and began to think about the memories he had seen in Hermione's head. She had kissed him, Harry thought. He lingered on the moment he saw Hermione's lips touch his. Wait a minute! Hermione kissed him! Did that mean she liked him? Well if she did you blew it, thought Harry. But why did Harry care if he missed a chance with Hermione. It slowly dawn on Harry why he cared. He liked Hermione, if not more. He truly cared about her. It was stronger then what he felt for Cho. That was just a crush. Then Harry remembered what she had said in her memory. "I don't know what I'd do with out you," and that's exactly how Harry felt back in the Ministry a month back when he thought she had died. This was more then just liking someone. Harry got up and began to pace around the room. It was true he didn't just like Hermione. He loved her. He loved the way she bit her lower lip when she was concentrating, he loved how she was always willing to put Ron and himself ahead of her, and how she was always pushing them to be better. Then another thought crossed Harry's mind. What about Ron? His began to feel pain in his chest, Hermione was already mad at him, and Ron was acting weird because of the O.W.L's. Harry's head began to swim, maybe he was over thinking the kiss but before he could dwell on it he heard a knock on his door.

"Come in, instructed Harry. His back was to the door and when he turned around he saw all eight Slytherins standing in his room.

"We know you're planning something Potter," said Malfoy in an accusing tone. Harry panicked and thought one of them would run of to tell Voldemort but Draco continued. "We want in."

"What?" a perplexed Harry asked.

"We want to help," a younger Slytherin said.

"Yeah, You-Know-Who's followers killed are mothers and our dads stood by and did nothing. In our eyes they're dead to us, we only have each other." explained another Slytherin.

"We all have to avenge our Mums. We went into hiding because they didn't want us to become like our dads," the young Slytherin chipped in again.

"We were wrong for the way we treated muggleborns," said the youngest of the Slytherin.

"We were wrong about a lot of things Potter," Draco paused.

"It might be a little late, but better late then never." Said Draco with full sincerity in his voice. Harry was completely stunned.

"Have you talked to Dumbledore, I'm sure he wants to know," was all Harry could say.

"Already did, he wanted us to make sure we told you, because you're going to be our point man." A now smirking Draco said.

"Point man?" asked Harry.

"Snape isn't the only spy."