Harry made an odd, sputtering noise, and found that liquid totally surrounded him. He lifted up his head quickly and his feet fell below him, though he couldn't feel the ground below. As he opened his eyes, he saw that he had been floating in the lake.

Amazed his glasses were still on, though they had just barely been hanging on at any rate, Harry put them on correctly and looked around. Kelly and Ron were both floating nearby.

Harry tried to swim over to them, but his muscles ached with pain.

Come on! Harry told himself. Let's get a move on!

Slowly, too slowly for Harry, his muscles began working again. He could only dog paddle at first, but then his arms got the hang of it and he reached the Ron, who was closer.

"Ron?" Harry asked into the night.

And then it hit him: it was night. Hermione would be dead.

"We… we failed…." Harry whispered out loud, the comprehension of what night meant just hitting him. "We failed her… Hermione… no… no… NO!"

Neither Ron nor Kelly stirred.

Harry shook his head vigorously. "Ron? Ron, wake up. Please, you can't leave me, too. You can't. Not again… you--you're not allowed…."

Ron remained quite still.

"No… I mean, I made it… we took the gillyweed at the same time, so you have to have made it, you have to have…."

"Technically, he doesn't," said a cool voice behind Harry that he recognized. Harry leaped around in relief that Kelly was alive--but then saw the malice behind her eyes and sighed.

"What d'you want?" Harry asked bitterly, turning back to Ron.

"Well, Potter," Voldemort said, gliding over to him through the water, "it's quite interesting really…."

"Go away," Harry said, anger leaping inside him that he tried to control, though his voice shook. "You killed Hermione, Ron might be dead, and Kelly--"

He stopped. If Voldemort could switch bodies with her, surely Kelly was alive, at least?

"Your dear beloved is watching and listening to my faithful Death Eaters. As for him, I really don't care. For the other girl, she's just very unhappy at you going to look for her in the lake. She said to make sure to tell you that you were a brainless git for looking in the lake, because that would have been so obvious. She says you wasted your time, and if I do kill her, she'll come back to haunt you as a ghost and she'll 'make sure you regret it'. There, just make sure you tell her I told you if you ever see her again, because God can that girl scream." Voldemort shivered.

Harry smirked, glad Hermione was at least making Voldemort uncomfortable, but a little angry with her all the same. "Tell her I'm not a brainless git--at least we didn't go looking in the Forest, an even more obvious place."

"She thought you'd say that," Voldemort said, flicking some water in Harry's eyes. Harry rubbed them but Voldemort kept flicking water into them as he swam around Harry and spoke, "and she said better the forest than the lake."

"WHAT!" Harry bellowed, making some birds in a tree near the lake fly away in alarm. "THE LAKE IS DEFINITELY BETTER THAN THE FOREST!"

"I tried to tell her," said Voldemort exasperatedly, now apparently trying to file Kelly's nails with a piece of seaweed, "but she just wouldn't listen to reason. Women, eh, Potter? Oh, and about this one…" he lowered his voice and stopped trying to file Kelly's nails, "you'll regret having made her conscious."

"Why's that?" Harry snapped, flicking water into Ron's eyes to see if that worked.

"Well… she's got one heck of a job, Potter, and she would have rather stayed unconscious because of all the problems it will cause… that it already has caused…."

"What d'you--"

But Voldemort had already left.

Kelly hit the water with a smack! She immediately got back above the surface of the water and rubbed her head. "Ow…"

"Kelly, help me with Ron while we talk about your job," Harry said, flicking more water into Ron's face. He'd felt a pulse while Voldemort had been in Kelly, it was just a matter of waking him up.

Kelly looked at him in mild surprise. "What?"

"Your job. The one that our adventure will cause major problems for," Harry said, now poking Ron with the seaweed Voldemort had tried to file Kelly's nails with.

Kelly stared at him. "What are you talking about?"

"Your job!" Harry repeated, accidentally poking Ron in the eye. Ron jumped up. "The one Voldemort just told me about--"

"Oh, that's intelligent!" Kelly said over Ron's moans of awakening. "Voldemort said it! You seriously didn't believe Voldemort?"

"Well, he seems to be giving better answers than you right about now!" Harry said, his temper rising with her for the first time he could remember.

Kelly opened her mouth to retaliate, then shut it. It gave Harry a kind of savage pleasure knowing that he had cornered The Great Kelly into speechlessness.

"Harry," Kelly finally said quietly, "let's get out of the lake and talk."

Harry was now rushing toward the edge of the lake. Today could be the day Kelly finally told him what was going on!

Ron and Kelly, not at all busied by getting to the edge fast, had barely moved by the time Harry had reached the edge.

"Well, come on!" he exclaimed impatiently.

They made little effort to pick up their pace.

While Harry waited impatiently, he started squeezing water out his robe and shirt, which he found would take quite a while to get even decently dried out. Indeed, by the time Kelly and Ron had reached the edge, he could hardly tell he hadn't just come in with them.

Harry eagerly went and sat down in the grass, leaning against a tree, waiting. Kelly and Ron tried to ring out their robes, but soon found, like Harry, that it was no use.

Harry's heart was pounding against his ribs as Kelly approached. She sat down next to him, soaking wet, her hair a matted mass of blonde, though it was now straight, something Harry had never seen before. It suited her well, he thought vaguely.

Kelly didn't say anything for a moment. Ron was standing awkwardly a few feet away, not sure if he should join them or quietly slip away. Harry was just sitting, waiting for someone else to speak.

It was Ron who did. "Should I…?"

His question seemed to be pointed to Kelly. She thought for a moment, then nodded her head back towards the castle. "Harry can tell you later."

Ron nodded and rather slowly started walking up toward the castle, a little too slowly, Harry thought. Harry called after Ron to stop trying to eavesdrop, and Ron grinned guiltily and started off again at a regular pace.

Kelly still didn't speak for a moment.

"Er…" Harry started. "So… you, er… wanted to talk?"

Kelly nodded her head slowly. "Yes…"

She didn't go farther.

"About… what?" Harry asked, trying to prod on the conversation.

Kelly turned to face him rather abruptly. "Harry, I must tell you something, and what I tell you, you must never tell another soul."

Harry nodded. This had to be it; this had to be her secret--

"I don't know when I'll tell you," she went on, and the excitement inside Harry seemed to vanish, "but when I do, or when you accidentally find out on your own, as you seem to do so often, you can't tell. Promise?"

Harry, who had been hoping for her to tell him the secret, merely nodded glumly, his head falling to his chest.

"Harry," Kelly said, lifting up his chin with her hand, "look at me."

He obliged.

"I will tell you, if you don't find out before the appointed time," Kelly said, her eyes twinkling in a way that reminded Harry of Dumbledore's. "When you find out is only a matter of time."

"What if… what if you're killed before I find out?" Harry asked.

"I won't be," Kelly said, smiling.

"But what if you are?" Harry persisted.

"Then there are others who will tell you," Kelly said quietly. "I am not the only one who knows."

"Riles," Harry said quietly, and Kelly let her hand drop.

"All the Secret Students are quite aware of it, Riles especially, yes," Kelly agreed, "but I am thankful they have agreed to not speak of it until I have told you."

"And you don't know when you'll tell me? Because you really could die, and I'd rather hear it from you--"

"Harry, do you trust me?"

Harry was startled by this question. "What?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes, of course."

"How far would you trust me?"

"I'd trust you with anything."

"Even your life, or Ron's life, or Hermione's life?"

"Yes."

Kelly gently kissed his cheek. "Then trust me on this: I will not die before you have been told."

Harry blushed a little and nodded. He really wanted to know, but he supposed if she promised she would live to tell him, and it was sooner than the next fifty years, he could wait. Of course, it wasn't like she gave him much of a choice….

"Okay," Harry said, confirming his nod. "I can wait."

"Good," Kelly said, standing up. "Now come on. McGonagall's going to be livid when she finds out, and if she catches us before we change clothes, we'll catch a cold because she won't let us leave."

An outraged scream from inside that carried all the way to where they were made Harry think that McGonagall already knew.

Kelly sighed. "Okay, scratch that. We'll just need to avoid her until we get to cha--"

"POTTER! DAMEN!" The doors leading into and out of the great castle had burst open and Minerva McGonagall rushed through them, her face, as Kelly had predicted, contorted with rage.

"C'mon, we have to get up a tree," Kelly said with a mischievous glint in her eye.

She and Harry raced up the one they had been leaning against and watched as McGonagall searched for them below.

"POTTER! DAMEN!" she screeched.

Harry put his hands over his ears. Her screams were loud!

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Oh no… Harry thought.

"POTTER, DAMEN, GET DOWN FROM THERE RIGHT NOW! FIVE POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR EACH FOR HIDING FROM A TEACHER!" McGonagall yelled, causing several windows to open from the castle and some students to look out in wonder.

Harry and Kelly jumped down from the tree. Kelly took one look at McGonagall's face and burst into fits of laughter. Harry suppressed a smile for only a moment before he, too, started into fits of laughter. There was nothing particularly funny about her face; it was just a very angry one, but somehow it seemed hysterical after what they had just been through, what they would never forget.