Chapter 4

I woke up and jumped. Harry was standing right over my bed. "You scared me half to death!" I exclaimed as I limbered out of bed. I put on my bathrobe. "It's 9. Now I could lend you a shower and a hairbrush if you wanted…"

"Yes please," he exclaimed. I laughed. I brought him down the hall into the bathroom and gave him a clean towel and a new toothbrush. "I think you'll have to use the same clothes but that's okay, right? My dad is pretty round around the middle."

"That's fine." He closed the door and I went back to my room, pulled on a t-shirt and my jeans and made some breakfast. Harry came down about 20 minutes later, when I had some eggs on his plate and a kipper or two on the go. "I'm not the best chef so don't complain," I lectured him. He wolfed it down. "I was starving," he said. "I didn't have any muggle money left after I bought my train ticket." I stared at him. "That's terrible! Why didn't you bring more money?"

"I stole it from Uncle Vernon. I thought the train fare was only 50 pence," Harry sighed. "But now I'm not hungry so everything's okay." I was amazed at his stupidity and was about to comment for one second, but then I remembered Sirius and stayed quiet. I wanted to ask if there had been any deaths or disappearances lately but that could trigger a nerve about Sirius. Then I'd have a problem. So I stayed quiet as I put the dishes in the washer and asked Harry if he wanted to take a walk with me. "Sure. It couldn't hurt," he said, so we put on our shoes and walked out the driveway. I still had the letter to him in my pocket. "Have you gotten your results yet for OWLs?" I asked as I looked in the postbox outside our house. Nothing. I sighed and continued on. "Nope," he said. Harry followed me on the walk like a lost puppy. It was actually very cute. "So, where do you wanna go?" I asked him. "Um, I dunno, wherever you're going."

"How about up to the park? It's nice up there," I supposed. I hadn't been there for a while and I didn't know the state of the park. "Sure," Harry said.

We trekked and trekked up the hill until we ended up at a deserted playground. Good, I thought as I sat down on a swing. Harry joined me. "I need to tell you something, Harry," I said quietly. I looked over my shoulder, half-expecting to see somebody watching. "Go on then," Harry suggested. "Okay. Two days ago, Snape came to my house and demanded to know where you were. Of course I didn't tell him, since I had no idea. That means that Snape apparently wants to know where you are. He may not be as loyal to Dumbledore as we believe. I tried to contact Dumbledore, but I didn't have an owl so I went over to his brother's house and asked him to send it to him." I took a breath in which Harry let out his, a slightly disappointed look in his eye. On purpose I left the part about Snape attacking me. Harry would worry too much. I continued. "I've been in correspondence with Ron because I couldn't get through to you. We know now that we have people reading our mail."

He breathed in. "Fortunately we never trusted Snape. We never told him anything important. That's good. He probably had people reporting to him though. Like the Slytherins last year." I nodded. "We have to be more careful this year."

I bobbed my head again and we sat in silence for a while, thinking about the words we just said.

"Look at the time! If we want to get you hidden we have to get home soon," I cried. I grabbed Harry by the hand and started to run down the hill to my house. Harry eventually beat me there, but luckily there was no car in the driveway. Pulling out my keys as I reached the front door, unlocking the door and walking into the house I nearly forgot, because the dark figure sat at my kitchen table eating a banana. I screamed as loud as possible, but a glare from Snape took away my voice. "Get out of my house!" I croaked. He stood up and came over to where Harry and I were standing. "Why the hell are you here, Snape? Not as loyal to Dumbledore as he believes?" Harry roared. I realized I was gripping Harry's hand very hard and held it tighter. "So Mr. Potter," Snape murmured icily. He was about to continue when I butted in, "Why don't you shut up? My parents are going to be home soon and they're not going to be happy when they see a prowler like you. If you know what's good for you you'd leave right now."

He moved closer to me so I could feel his oily breath on my face. "Don't talk back to me, Mudblood."

I boldly said, "Don't call me that," back to him. He brought his hand back and slapped me hard on the side of my face. I gave him a dirty look and looked away, still holding the side of my face.

"Potter. I've been waiting to see you. My master will certainly be pleased," Snape said, lingering by Harry and his hand reaching for his wand. I realized he was going to kill Harry. I growled, "Don't fight in my house. Leave now." Harry pulled out his wand. He forgot to bring money but not his wand. Typical, I thought. Then Harry turned around to the hallway and cried, "Accio wand!" My wand came shooting down the stairs and into Harry's hands. He gave it to me and we shoved them in Snape's face. He cackled. "You think two teenagers are going to scare the likes of me? Think again." He held his wand firmly. "Wands aren't really my specialty, but I still know nearly every single curse in the Dark Arts textbook. I'll be courteous and ask you, Potter. What curse would you like to die by?"

At that moment I knew I had to interfere in some way. I pulled my wand back, and jabbed it forwards, shrieking, "Tarantallagrea!" His feet started to tap dance on the floor. "GRANGER!" he roared as he tried to make a lunge for me but he tripped over his feet and lay jerking around on the ground. "Expelliarmus!" Harry called. Snape's wand flew into his hands. Snape sneered, but reached for a blood red metal band on his left arm. I looked closer and it had skull and crossbones with a snake coming out of it. "Harry, he's calling for help!" I cried. He pressed it and it turned black.

We hesitated, but about 10 seconds later more shadowy figures appeared out of thin air. The first one to arrive pulled out his wand and muttered the counter-curse of Snape's dancing. He stopped immediately. "Thank you, Wormtail," Snape said, bowing. Harry clenched his fists, while I raised an eyebrow, utterly lost. Wormtail disappeared with a crack into midair; many others followed. Snape was the last to leave. "That was only the first time you'll see me, Potter. Granger, watch yourself or I might just have to get you out of the way." He left with a crack.

It was strangely quiet. Too quiet, I thought. Then I remembered. "Bloody hell. My parents are coming!" I grabbed Harry and pulled him up the stairs and hid him in the closet. "You're starting to sound like Ron," Harry said. I heard the clicking of keys and the door being unlocked. I gave him the shut-up-or-die look and closed the door. "Hermione? Are you there?" I heard my mom call.

"Hi mum," I shouted down.

"Did you do anything interesting today?"

I smiled to myself, as I said, "No. Not really. Did you?"