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Chapter One

He was sitting in the corner of the bar/restaurant, alone. She had noticed that for the several times that she came in here to watch him at a distance. He was still the same with his ruffled, untamed dark brown hair and emerald green eyes. The only thing different about Harry Potter was his glasses. They weren't there anymore.

Hermione sighed as she pushed her glass away from her. The bartender came over and asked if she would like some more, his special. She shook her head and turned back to watching Harry out of the corner of her eye. The bartender just shrugged and walked away to fulfill everybody else's orders. Hermione barely noticed and really didn't care.

It had been so long since she last saw Harry that Hermione was afraid that she would forget what he looked like, but apparently that wasn't the case. She was thinking whether she should go over there and start talking to him, see if he remembered her, but she couldn't do that. It was a little rude to do that and Hermione was too shy to just get up and walk over there towards him and just start talking like they've been best friends since Hogwarts. But then again, isn't that what she had done the first time she'd ever met Harry? She couldn't be too sure about anything anymore.

Hermione decided to take the chance anyway. If it weren't him, then she'd just apologize and hurry away again. It would be embarrassing, but she had to try. Hermione stood and cautiously walked towards the table in the corner. Sitting down in the seat across the table from him, she studied him carefully. It was Harry.

She didn't whether she should get up and walk over to him, talk to him. After all, they hadn't talked to each other since they graduated from Hogwarts and the few times soon after it was strained and tensed, so the two of them soon fell out of touch. Even Ron said he and Harry been getting out of touch and then…Harry died in the hands of Voldemort, according to the Daily Prophet. But apparently they were wrong.

Harry soon paid the bartender and got up, leaving the bar behind him. Hermione got up to follow after him, to speak to him, to see if he was real, but by the time she got up to the door, he had gone. Hermione stopped and sighed with frustration. Would she ever get close to him like when they were friends back in school? She was sure that it was getting pretty difficult.

"Well, fancy seeing you here, Hermione. You never were the type to go into the bar to drink," a voice said, stepping through the bar door in front of her.

Hermione followed her eyes up the slender body to the grinning, freckled face red haired boy known to many as Ron Weasley. She gave him a weak smile as she stepped to the side to let him in.

"I…wasn't in here getting a drink," Hermione lied quickly, then lowering her voice, "but I was following a mission. Ron, I just saw Harry. He's alive."

Ron's eyes widened and leaned closer to her. "Alive? But that can't be possible. He's dead, he died in the hands of Voldemort and everybody said so, even the newspapers."

"But Ron, I'm telling the truth. I just saw him, over there—" Hermione pointed to the corner of the bar, "I don't know where he went off to, he left so quickly. But I do know that I saw him in here."

Ron placed a finger under Hermione's chin and lifted it up so she could look into his eyes. Hermione suddenly realized that Ron looked more matured than he did at school. His hair had gotten shaggier and was more of an auburn red than the bright carrot top red hair that he used have and his blue eyes were the perfect sky blue and his freckles were still there in clusters, but they seemed more becoming on him. Hermione mentally shook herself, she couldn't be thinking of her best friend like that.

"I believe you, Hermione. I think we should just keep this low. We don't know who's listening or who may be watching."

Hermione nodded. She knew how true that statement was. Nobody knew who were Death Eaters and who wasn't. Nobody could be trusted, really.

"Good," Ron said softly. "Now, we need to go and find somebody from the Order. Maybe Albus Dumbledore. He'll know what to do."

Hermione sighed. "Do we really need the Order, Ron? It'll be too much of a burden for them to think about Harry while they are trying to fight against Voldemort."

"But isn't Harry something to do with Voldemort?" Ron began.

"I guess, but shouldn't we make sure that he really IS Harry before we go troubling the Order?" Hermione asked.

Ron fell silent and began walking quietly out the door of the bar. Wondering what he was up to, Hermione hurried after him. After walking down several blocks, the two of them stopped in front of a drab old building and Hermione instantly remembered that this was where Ron lived when he was in town.

After muttering a password, the door flew open and the two of them stepped inside. Inside was much grander than what it showed on the outside. There was a large wooden staircase curving slightly in the main hall with a huge chandelier in the middle of the curve up on the ceiling. There were many pictures of people from older times to present, possibly the renters' family.

Ron laughed as he closed the door behind him and locked the door. "You've been here many times before, yet you look around in wonder."

Hermione gave a small smile. "Because it's still so beautiful as before. I wish I could live here."

"They're letting another one of their rooms out if you want an apartment here," Ron said.

"I couldn't really live here, I'd be afraid I'd break something. And anyways, who would want to live in the same house as you twenty-four-seven?" Hermione teased.

Ron rolled his eyes as the two of them climbed the stairs towards Ron's room.

Closing the bedroom door behind him, Ron went over and sat at his desk. "What are we going to do about Harry?"

"I don't know. Maybe one of us could keep a close tab on him. I could do that since I'm not on any other sort of assignment at the moment," Hermione exclaimed.

"I think I should do it considering Harry was my close friend," Ron put in.

Hermione glared. "You haven't finished your training. And anyway, Dumbledore says you still haven't the sense in your head just yet for big, important tasks."

"Hah, enough sense. I've got the sense, I just love having my fun once in a while," Ron said, trying to defend himself.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "That's what gets you in trouble."

He opened his mouth to say something, but then the phone on his desk began to ring. Ron glared as he got up to answer it. Hermione just laughed. She had always loved having the last laugh.

Ron picked up the phone in grimace. "Hello?" His eyes scrunched as he listened. "Yes, yes, I got back to my flat safely…no, but I'm on it…yes, she's here, I'll tell her right away…OK…sure, yeah…OK, bye."

Ron hung up the phone and turned towards Hermione. "That was Dumbledore. He wants you to go see him in his office as Hogwarts. He says its something important."

'Great,' thought Hermione, 'obviously Dumbledore didn't want me to use the convenience of Apparition.' "What else did he say?"

Ron shrugged. "Nothing important."

"Right. Well, I best be going, if Dumbledore wants to talk to me," Hermione said. She turned and started to walk out the door.

"Hey, Hermione," Ron called out and Hermione turned back around.

"Yes?"

"Just be careful, will you? I don't know what I'd do if I lost another one of my friends," Ron said.

Hermione smiled. She sometimes thought that Ron cared more for her than just a friend. "I'll do my best. You be careful yourself."

Ron nodded. "Oh, and Hermione. We'll find Harry, I'm sure he's alive if you saw him. I know you loved him."

Hermione felt her eyes well up for the first time all evening, rather the first time in many, many weeks. Ron was right; she HAD loved Harry like a brother, more like somebody she would go out with. But she was determined not to let Ron see her like this and she turned around.

"Yes. But I really need to go, Ron. Goodbye." Before he had a chance to say anything more, Hermione quickly left the flat and soon out onto the streets. She was determined not to cry, no matter what. Heading down the street, she walked towards what Dumbledore wanted and the truth that she was going to find out in the future.