Omg this chapter gave me so many writers blocks, I hope it makes sence.

Chapter 5: Elda Lukin

In the week leading up to Halloween they saw a lot of midnight. They would either see her carrying Lupin around on her back (he was rather week as it had just been a full moon), or in Snape's lessons. She was almost around Snape as much as she was around Lupin. Lupin was right in saying that Snape knew her well.

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On the morning of Halloween when Ron went down to breakfast he saw the Great Hall was decorated for the occasion with many things, including Hagrid's giant pumpkins. Ron sat down with Hermione and Harry at the Gryffindor table.

"So we're going ahead with the plan today, right?" Ron asked.

"Yes, after dinner Harry will start talking to Lupin and we will go to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. So Ron you will need to have the map on you during dinner, which means you will need to get it before." Hermione planned.

Harry and Ron nodded in agreement.

Through out the whole day Ron's mind was not on his lessons, as it should have been, but on that nights plan. He managed to set fire to the parchment he was trying to erase dots of ink from with his wand.

"Ron!" Hermione cried. "Please be careful with that." She moved her work away from his and extinguished the fire spreading across it.

"Oh sorry Hermione, I'm just not really concentrating at the moment."

"I can see that, be more careful please."

By the time last lesson had ended Ron could think of nothing else but what they were planning to do. He really wanted to know what was going on, and he was quite nervous about what might happen if they were caught, especially by Midnight. His mind went back to the first time he had seen Midnight and how intimidating she had looked and how much damage he supposed she could do. He was starting to feel that way about her again. Just before they went down to dinner Harry got the map and handed it to Ron, who put it in his trouser pocket. The feast was really great and it actually took Ron's mind off the map in his pocket and everything that was attached to fact of it being there. The thing that brought him crashing back to reality was Hermione hissing in his ear after dinner,

"It's time, come on lets get going."

Ron stood up and saw Harry going over to the teacher's table to talk to Lupin. He and Hermione rushed out the door and hurried along the corridors until they got to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Ron pulled out the map, pointed his wand at it and said,

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." From where the point of his wand touched the grubby parchment lines of ink started spreading across it. These lines joined each other, criss-crossed and spread to every corner of the parchment. Then the lines formed words across the top, curly green words that proclaimed:

Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs

Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers

are proud to present

THE MARAUDER'S MAP

 Underneath these words the lines drew out a map of Hogwarts and its grounds. This map included all the secret passageways and labelled everyone within this area. Ron glanced down to see that Lupin and Harry were still in the Great Hall. He signalled for Hermione to go into the classroom and she hurried in. Ron looked down at the map again to check that Lupin and Harry were still far enough away. He saw that they were starting to slowly walking towards the door of the Great Hall. He hoped Harry would delay Lupin and Midnight long enough for Hermione to perform the charm and get out again. He looked at the map again. Wait a moment, he thought, where is Midnight? He scanned across the whole grounds for her then thought that maybe the map doesn't show animals, but he could see Mrs Norris the caretaker's cat prowling around the trophy room. Ron furrowed his brow in confusion. He couldn't see her anywhere, and this worried him slightly. She couldn't have left the grounds that quickly he had only just seen her in the Great Hall with Lupin. While Ron was musing over this Harry and Lupin had made their way up the stairs and were walking slowly down the corridors towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Ron tapped on the door.

"Hermione," he hissed. "You'd better hurry up in there, Harry and Lupin will be here soon." He watched the dots labelled 'Remus Lupin' and 'Harry Potter' get closer and closer to the spot where he was standing.

He rapped on the door again. "Hermione! Hurry up!" she slid round the door and closed it gently. "I've done the spell and I found out that-" Hermione had to stop in mid sentence because at that moment Lupin, Harry and Midnight came round the corner. Lupin, Harry and Midnight all stopped in front of Ron and Hermione, who were standing by the door to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, looking rather guilty.

"What are you two doing here?" Lupin asked them.

"We saw Harry talking to you and we thought we would be able to catch you here so, so we could talk to Harry." Hermione said. She then smiled a very innocent smile.

"Oh, ok then." Lupin didn't look very convinced but he walked by them into his office anyway. Midnight followed him. As she walked in she examined the three of them standing there with her deep brown piercing eyes. Ron was afraid that she could see right through him, he didn't like it one bit.

As soon as both Lupin and Midnight were in Lupin's office Harry whispered, "So what did you find out?"

"Well we know she's not travelling by floo powder but I think I know ho-"

"Hey you guys! Look at this!" Ron looked at the map and pointed to Lupin's office. Inside were two dots. One was labelled 'Remus Lupin' but the other, instead of being labelled Midnight said 'Elda Lukin'. "But who is she? We only saw Midnight and Lupin go in there no other people and-"

"Oh! You two are so stupid! Isn't it obvious?" Hermione asked, aspirated. Ron and Harry both gave her a blank look. "Argh! Midnight is Elda Lukin and Elda is Midnight! She an animagus! I can't believe how stupid you have been, I've suspected that she was for a long time and have been doing a lot of research to try and find out who she was. Thing is I could find out because she's not a registered animagus so I needed her name which is why I agreed to do this thing."

Ron gazed at Hermione and wondered how she had managed to work all this out, but when he thought about it it was pretty obvious, in fact it was so obvious he wondered why he hadn't seen it himself. He felt really stupid at that moment, everything had pointed to this why didn't he realise. Ron looked at Harry and saw the same look of frustration about not realising the truth, as he supposed he must have on his face.

"You're right Hermione. I have been utterly stupid, I can't believe I didn't notice. I suppose my mind's just been on other things recently." Ron apologised to Hermione and smiled sweetly at her. Hermione smiled back and Harry groaned. They broke their gaze and continued to walk down the corridor. They stopped and Ron found that his feet seemed to have taken him to the library. The three of them went in and sat at a table.

Ron looked over at Hermione. "Erm, Hermione why are we in the library?"

"So we can look up Elda Lukin, silly!"

"Oh, right, yeah, of course." They spent the rest of the day looking up facts on Elda Lukin. They also spent the next day doing the same thing. And the next, and the next. It took a long time before they found anything because they really didn't know where they had to look. they looked in books such as, Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, Important Magical Discoveries, Great Wizarding Personalities, Modern Magical History and Wizard World Records. They even looked in The Rise and fall of the Dark Arts with a faint hope of finding something about her in there. But after a month of searching they still found nothing. Ron was giving up hope in ever finding anything at all about this person. Even so Hermione refused to accept that the library did not contain what she was looking for and continued to spend hours on end devouring book after book.

During one of Hermione's library binges Ron came to keep her company. She looked really tired up close and she was holding the book she was reading inches from her face.

"Hermione," Ron moved the book away from her face so he could see her. "I think you are working to ####### this. It seems to be finishing you off on top of all your NEWT work. You need to take a break."

Hermione looked at him aspirated. "Ron I really need to find this out, what if she's dangerous?"

"If she was dangerous surely Lupin wouldn't let her follow him around everywhere and I'm sure Dumbledore will know about her, so just don't worry about it. Ok?"

Hermione groaned. "Ok I suppose I'll take a break but as the Christmas holidays will be here soon I will be able to spend that time looking for longer."

"But-"

"But nothing, you should be glad that I'm taking a break at all."

Ron knew it was no use arguing with Hermione once her mind was made up so he left it at that. He took her book from her and put it away so she could do nothing else and had to literally drag her out of the library.

"Come one Mione, I haven't spent any time with you, and you alone for a very long time." Ron looked at her with pleading eyes. He could see her giving in, the frown she was wearing was slowly taken over by a smile.

"Ron!" she said in a mock pout stamping her foot, but the smile on a face was still very apparent. "I hate it when you look at me with those eyes!"

"I'm very sorry Mione, but they are the only pair I've got!"

She hit him playfully on the arm. "Stop being silly! You know very well what I mean!" They both laughed and Ron found his hand intertwined with Hermione's. They wondered down the empty corridor hand in hand, and Ron suddenly realised that they weren't heading for the Gryffindor common room.

"Hermione? Erm, the common room is back that way."

"I know." Hermione grinned a very mischievous grin. Ron was puzzled. It was not often that Hermione would look at him like that. He wondered what was going through her mind. "I thought it would be nice to find somewhere we can be alone." They turned a corner and Ron found himself being lead into the trophy room.

"Hermione? This is the trophy room."

"Yes," Hermione had an odd glint in her eye. "I know Ron, no one will disturb us here." Ron found Hermione arms had wrapped themselves around his waist and that her body was pressing against his. He brushed his hand against her warm cheek and her eyes met his. They stood there locked in their gaze for what could have been hours. Ron leant forward and kissed Hermione softly on the lips. When he broke away Hermione grinned at him.

"Oh Ron!" she squealed. Ron gave her a puzzled look. Surely the kiss wasn't that good. "Ron look!" she jumped up and down and pointed at a plaque behind him. Ron looked and saw it was a list of the Hogwarts prefects and head boys and girls over the years.

"Hermione why-"

"Look Ron, we've found her! We've found Elda Lukin!"

Ron walked towards the plaque on the wall and scanned down the names engraved on it. About half way down he found the name "Elda Lukin". She had been a prefect and head girl for Slytherin at Hogwarts a few years after Harry's father James was for Gryffindor.

"So now we know she came to Hogwarts and she was a Slytherin, that's a big help Hermione!"

"Well it's a start. Surely we can find some student records somewhere."

"Yeah, I suppose." Ron leant toward Hermione ready for another kiss but she just brushed him away. Ron felt rather hurt. He put his arm around her but she shook it off and started walking around the trophy room looking at the names on the cups and shields that were displayed. Ron followed her glumly. She was taking no notice of him, which was quite an insult to Ron as it was supposed to be their time alone together. But once again Hermione was too involved in her research to notice him. He sighed and leant against the wall, watching her. She was so beautiful to him. She crinkled up her nose, she looked so cute when she did that and Ron smiled to himself.

She turned around to look at him and sighed. "I can't find anything else with her name on it but at least this is a start. Come on, let's go find Harry and tell him what we know." Hermione took Ron's hand and lead him back to the Gryffindor common room.

--- I am really sorry for making them all so stupid as not to realise Midnight was an animagus sooner but it just had to be done. Tell me what you think!---