DISCLAIMER: Once again, I have ran out of witty disclaimers so I'll just say it: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. Thank you and Have a nice day!

A/N: Er…yeah, the wait, uh…:looks around sheepishly:…sorry bout that. 4th of July and all, been kinda busy, ya know? Anyways, the holidays are over, my family has gone back home (thank the lord), and I did not receive any burns or end up in the hospital from playing with fireworks, so unless my brain freezes, I should be updating.

Chapter 20: (20 already? Man, and I thought this would be a short story…hmmm…)

"Did you get her?"

Wormtail bowed low. "Yes, my lord."

"And is she alive?"

"Yes my lord."

The new Dark Lord studied the bowing man in front of him. "There's something you're not telling me Wormtail."

Wormtail squeaked nervously. "Er…well, there was sort of a problem in the plan."

"Problem?" The Lord hissed. "What sort of problem?"

"Well, she wasn't alone my lord."

"Who was with her?"

"One of her school friend. Ron…Ron Weasley," Wormtail stuttered.

"Ron Weasley eh? Surprising…but go on."

"Well, he got in the way so I dealt with him."

The Lord's eyes glowed with anger. "How?" He hissed quietly.

"Killed him, my lord."

The Lord jumped to his feet. "WHAT!"

"I had to my lord, he would have compromised things," Wormtail squeaked apologetically while continuously bowing.

"You have just compromised things you idiot! I didn't want Dumbledore alerted but now he surely knows everything. The plan was to get the girl and not raise suspicions too much. Now you ruined any hope of a sneak attack."

Wormtail scurried back a little, afraid of the new Dark Lord's wrath. "M..my lord, we had reports that Dumbledore already suspected…"

"Already suspected? Well, now he is left in no doubt is he? I should have known better than to trust something this simple to you Wormtail. You have a way of screwing up the easiest of plans."

"So..so sorry my lord. I did not mean it to…"

"SILENCE!" The Dark Lord screamed and flipped his long silvery-blond hair out of his face. He smiled maliciously at the man in front of him. "Now Wormtail, I'm sure you did not mean for this to happen but…"

"B…b…but?" Wormtail stuttered, his face full of fear.

"But I cannot let this go unpunished."

"My lord, please, I beg you."

The Dark Lord sneered at him. "Begging shows weakness, surely you know that. Crucio!"

And as Wormtail's painful screams filled the cave, a hooded figure with sorrow-filled eyes sat in the corner of a shadowy pub known for its' share of riff-raff, listening closely to the conversations all around him as if listening for some clue, some bit of information to help him on his search. The stranger took a large gulp of the Firewhisky in his hand before quickly tuning in on an interesting conversation between a man named Goyle and another named Kinston.

qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp!AMAYA!qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp

And just for a recap….

"Looks like she knows who her dad asked to watch over her," a gentle voice commented from the doorway.

Harry spun around and looked at the man. "What are you doing here?"

"I am a part of this order too Potter," Snape snapped, his usual distaste for Harry once again apparent in his voice.

Harry glared at the older man, "Yeah? And how do you know about Sirina?"

Snape threw a look at Tonks. "If you want some things kept a secret, I advise you'd watch who you tell."

Tonks looked at the floor and muttered a soft, "sorry."

Snape ignored her and looked appraisingly at Harry. "So, Black has once again rushed off to fix everything himself, eh? Hasn't he learnt that his involvement only makes things worse?"

If it hadn't been for Sirina clutched in his arms, Harry would have launched himself at his former Potions Master. "Why don't you go do something useful instead of standing here and putting Sirius down?" Harry bit out.

Snape sneered. "Yes, it would be a pity if he died, wouldn't it?"

By his tone, Harry was left with no doubt that Snape wouldn't find it a pity if something terrible did happen to Sirius. But before Harry could refute, a third voice joined their fray.

"Now, now Severus, Sirius is a great man and no one deserves to die," the calm, tired voice of Dumbledore said. "We need unity if we are ever to find out who is behind this and save Hermione and Sirius."

Snape scoffed loudly at the mention of Sirius and Harry couldn't stand there and take it any longer. "Why are you even here to help if you'd rather Sirius die?" Harry yelled in anger.

Snape scowled. "I might not care about Sirius' life, Potter, but Miss Granger helped me once and I intend on not letting that favor go unpaid."

Harry opened his mouth to inquire further about this favor Hermione did for Snape when Dumbledore stood up and called everyone's attentions to him.

"Now, as most of you are aware, there was an attack just a few hours before now. One upon Mr. Ron Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger. I regret to say that Mr. Weasley did not make it out alive. Miss Granger's condition, however, is currently unknown. Furthermore, Mr. Black has chose to go looking for her…alone. We must fear for the worse. We do not know who is behind these attacks or their motives."

"It appears that in the past three months, people unknown to us have been gathering followers for some plan. We were in the process of gathering details about these secret meetings and such when we got word of the planned attack on Miss Granger. It appears that Mr. Weasley just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was not a target," Dumbledore continued in a grave voice over the sobs of Molly Weasley.

"Do you think You-Know-Who is back, Albus?" Emmeline Vance asked timidly from the back corner of the room.

Dumbledore smiled sadly. "No, my dear woman, Voldemort is dead." Some shuddered at the sound of his name, even though he was dead. "It would appear, though, that someone has plans on picking up where he left off."

"But who?" Molly asked, looking fearfully at him through red, puffy eyes.

Dumbledore sighed. "That, even I do not know but I have my suspicions."

"Who?" Almost everyone asked at once.

Dumbledore raised a hand calling for silence. "I do not wish to start blaming people when there is no proof of their involvement. Until we find more information, I'm afraid all we can do is speculate."

"So how are we going to find Hermione?" Harry asked, his voice showing his fear.

Dumbledore looked at him, "The same way we found out information while Voldemort was in power…spies."

Harry looked at Snape. "So, is that your part in this ordeal?"

"I do not have inside connections…yet, so I do not know who is making the orders," Snape said in a brisk manner. "I do, however, have connections that are passing me some information…"

"Which is how you found out about the attack," Harry finished for him.

Snape nodded.

"So what is the plan?" Harry asked, turning towards Dumbledore.

"Search," Dumbledore said simply.

Harry looked at him, aghast. Search? That was it? No big plan, no extravagant fight, not charging in? "Search," he repeated slowly.

Dumbledore smiled sadly. "I'm afraid until we get more tips that that is all we can do."

Harry sighed. He knew Dumbledore was right. After all, when was he ever wrong? Sirina stirred restlessly in his arms, giving off a soft cry. "I've uh…got to get Sirina to bed. She needs some sleep."

After Harry disappeared from sight up the stairs, Snape looked at the worn-out Headmaster. "She needs her mother."

Dumbledore nodded mechanically then looked up at Snape with unshed tears sparkling in his eyes. "Let's just hope she still has a mother."

qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp!AMAYA!qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp

A/N: Dumbledore losing hope? What will become of the wizarding world? Er…I know, VERY SHORT. You don't have to tell me. I just wanted to get this up so you guys didn't butcher my head and serve it to a bunch of man-hungry sharks. If you guys don't know who the dark lord is by now, I'm highly disappointed. I dropped enough hints that it should be easy.

Anyways, 10 points to those who thought that Snape was the voice. He was…as it clearly stated. If you're wondering about the favor, look at the chapter titled "Saving a Life" under All My Yesterdays. It wasn't really a favor, I just didn't know what else to call it.

PRIZE TIME! Winners are…….(note: if you did not state what animal you would like, I gave you one!)

Morena-Forever: you get a squirrel… manasa: you can have a skunk, a deskunkafied one that is… AkureiInuKitsune: you can have your hippogriff and I'll throw in a bag of dead rats since you put what animal you wanted, cheers… and finally SpikesDreamer: you can have..er…my evil kitty…go ahead, just don't try to pet her whatever you do!

Oh, whoever said (the page just shut down) that it was written by Milton Feasley, you can have whatever animal you requested! Sorry I don't have your name, the page went down…..please forgive me…

The answer was a Listerine Mouthwash Commercial, weird huh?

New Question! Winner gets an imaginary (er…running out of prize ideas) pre 6th book…. Er…lame, but all I could think of….

Q: In 1956, a man was forced to make the decision between trying out for the United States Olympic team (track) or recording his first album for Columbia Records. He chose the latter and went on to become the eighth biggest selling album artist of all time. Who was that man?

Right, moving on…I wish you guys luck… Hope you guys had a happy 4th of July, to all those Americans out there! Or anyone else that celebrates it. We had fun setting of fireworks. We figured out that if you light a firecracker, throw it in a bucket and run, there is a really big BANG. My aunt came running at us going "Don't you dare blow my bucket up! Get that thing away from the house!" It was amusing.

Anyways, please review! I'll try to update sooner this time… Oh, one reviewer wrote that they thought I abandoned this story. I would never do that! I love this story. I can't wait to figure out where I'm taking it. You guys thought you were the only ones in for surprises, I'm just playing it chapter by chapter. I didn't even intend on Snapie-poo being the man. So, hopefully I'll figure it out soon but I have no intentions on abandoning this story. Also, Gi Xian: yeah, we keep guns in the house. I used to have one in my closet. We're big on the whole hunting thing.. Do you not? And Remusgrl01: Yes, I am planning on continuing this even after HBP is released. What else would I do in my free time?

Next Chappie: The Chappie of Cliffies! Da da dummmmmmm!

Review…please…lets see if I can get 400 reviews. That's my goal. Please? Pretty, pretty, pretty please. That little button down there. Yeppers, that's the one! Click, go ahead, click….

qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp!AMAYA!qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp