"So," Ron said, drumming his wand on his hand, "are we going to touch the portkey?" Harry, Ron and Hermione were in the garden outside the Burrow ready to take a portkey to Sirius's cottage. Harry had been quiet all day since the argument with Ginny. Ron and Hermione had only managed to get one syllable answers from him.

"I'll count to three," Hermione suggested and started to count but Harry didn't move. Hermione and Ron looked at each other worridly.

"Hermione," Ron said, "you can take Harry's hand and make him reach for the portkey."

"I can do it myself, thanks," Harry said coldly. "We touch it on three. One, two, three." Harry, Ron and Hermione put their hands on the portkey and their feet lifted from the ground. A few seconds later the three of them slammed into the ground. Harry stood up and brushed some grass of his shoulder. They were in the middle of a thick forest outside a tiny green cottage. The cottage had turned wild. Grass and moss was growing around the house. If you didn't know there was a house underneath the green, you might not even notice it.

"At least no one will find us," Ron said looking at the cottage with slight dislike. "I mean, even if they walk past this, they might not even notice it's there."

They took their trunks inside the house. They had some trouble getting the door open to the cottage. It seemed like all the furniture had been placed outside the door,

There was only one bedroom, a kitchen, living room with a fireplace and, to Hermione's enjoyment, a library, which was more a small room full of books, but to Hermione that didn't matter. She dived right into the books.

"There might be something useful here," Hermione said from behind a shelf of books. She brushed off some dust and saw that most of the books were wizarding novels including the whole series of "A Witch In Love". Hermione had read a book in the series but not liked it very much. In her opinion, the female characters were too "boy crazy".

Later Ron helped Hermione set up protective charms around the cottage, while Harry tried to make it liveable inside the house. Ron didn't participate much, he enjoyed it more when he got to watch Hermione do magic.

"Hold this for me," Hermione said and threw rectangular object that looked like a black smooth brick stone with white buttons. "It's too heavy in my pocket." Ron began instantly pushing the buttons.

"A muggle thing?" Ron asked.

"It's a mobile phone. My mom and dad gave it to me so that I can keep in touch with them faster, where ever I am. But it's not much use, since most of the magic messes up the electronic."

"Oh," Ron said and looked at the phone in amazement. "It's like one of those felly tones, except that you can carry around with you?"

"Yes," said Hermione patiently, "and it's telephone not felly tone." Hermione waved her wand and muttered a spell. A shining white wall appeared before her, and disappeared after a second.

"Have you heard from your parents lately?"

"Actually, no," Hermione said and stopped walking around. "I have sent them owls, but I never got a reply from them. I should visit them, before we leave. You know, just to tell them not to worry. They always worry too much."

"I can come with you," Ron suggested.

"No, you don't have to. We have a lot of work here. And I don't think we can leave Harry here alone."

"We'll apparate. It's not so far. Pop there, pop here. It will take a second." Hermione thought about it for a second and the nodded. "Ok," she said and continued to wave her wand and mutter spells.

Bill: I crush every mirror in every house I see. I cannot look at myself, I cannot bear the thought of Fleur looking at me for the rest of her life. She deserves something better. That's why I left and I am not coming back. I am not fully a wolf, but there is a wolf part growing inside of me. Howling louder and louder every day. I don't know where it will take me. In the woods I howl hoping that some day someone will answer me.

Ron and Hermione arrived at a street with terraced houses as long as the eye could carry. Ron had not imagined Hermione living in a house like this.

"Come," Hermione said and began to walk along the street. They met several people Hermione new along the way. Mr. Smith came cycling down the road and then there were the Terry twins making trouble as always and girl, Sheena, whom Hermione had gone to school with.
"How are things at Grand Old Academy?" Sheena asked Hermione and she replied with a cheerful "Oh, it's just wonderful."

"Grand Old Academy?" Ron laughed and Hermione hit him playfully.

"I can't say I'm a witch, can I? She'd run to the other way as fast as her feet could manage."

Finally they arrived at Hermione's house. It looked exactly the same as the neighbouring houses; built of light and dark bricks, two stories high with a dark wooden door. Hermione walked up to the door and picked up a key from her pocket. She put it in the keyhole and carefully opened the door. No room was lit.

"Mum? Dad?" Hermione said through the darkness, though it was apparent that nobody was home. "I guess they are not home." She walked further into the house and Ron followed.

"I want to see your room," Ron said

"Ok, but it's not much to see," Hermione said and began to walk up the stairs to the second floor. Hermione's room was closest to the stairs. There were traces of duck tape on Hermione's door. The room was two times bigger than Ron's. In the middle lay a large bed. The walls were painted blue and in the back stood several rows of books neatly next to each other. Ron dragged Hermione on her bed and kissed her on the lips. For a while, only thing that could be heard was the smacking of lips, then Hermione broke the kiss.
"I think we should go," Hermione said. Ron looked reluctant at first. He'd rather continue kissing Hermione, but he knew they had work to do at the cottage, so he simply nodded and began to walk out of the room. Hermione followed and to make up for the discontinued snogging session, she intertwined her fingers with his.

Hermione left a note to her parents telling them that she would not be home for a while and that they had no need to worry about her.

Outside Ron said "See you at the cottage," before disappearing with a plop. His head felt a little dizzy when he appeared outside the cottage. He wasn't entirely used to Apparation just yet. He waited for Hermione to appear beside him but after he had waiter a quarter of an hour he started to get worried. He went inside the house but couldn't find anyone, not even Harry. He had tidied in the bedroom and the kitchen but everything else was still messy. Ron went outside again. Total silence. Harry had probably gone for a walk but he was worried about Hermione, even though they both had passed the Apparation test it was still risky for them to Apparate, when you aren't used to it. Ron decided to Apparate back to Hermione's house. He concentrated and with a plop he was outside her house. The door was ajar and Ron ran inside to find Hermione sitting still on the floor.

"What's wrong?" Ron said in a concern voice.

"I can't apparate," Hermione said staring blankly into the air.

"What do you mean you can't apparate?" He had never seen Hermione like this. "I've seen you do it loads of times."

"I mean," Hermione said trembling slightly."I can't Apparate. I can't do magic. I can't do anything. Something happened to me, Ron. I was doing perfectly fine a month ago, doing my exams and then suddenly I can't do a simple Levitation Charm. I thought I had just done the spell wrong or something, but then it started to happen more frequently and now I can't even apparate. I apparated fine just now, but look." Hermione took her wand out, pointed it in the air and yelled "Lumos!", but nothing happened. "See, no light. The light is gone!" Hermione's voice cracked, she was on the verge of tears.

"But you apparated here didn't you? You're the smartest witch I know! You are Hermione, super witch!"

"Not anymore,"Hermione said and brushed a tear off her cheek. "I've read every book I can find, and nowhere does it say anything about losing your magical abilities or becoming less of a witch. Nowhere!"

"Whatever this is that is going on with you, we'll figure it out" Ron helped Hermione up and hugged her gently.

"How do we get back to Harry? Can we side-apparate back?"

"I don't know, I almost can't apparate myself. It's too far. I don't want to splint us."

Hermione sighed. "You go then. I'll find a way to get back to you."

"I'm going with you! I'll write to Ginny. She can stay with Harry."

When Ginny was sure the house was quiet and empty of Harry and Fleur's relatives, she got out of her room. The hall was empty as was the kitchen. On the kitchen table lay a note from her parents saying that they needed to sort out a few things and that they would be back in a few hours. Beside her parent's note lay another piece of paper. Ginny picked it up and read:

Ginny,

Hermione and I decided to visit Hermione's parents but now we are having some trouble getting back to Harry. We don't know how long it will take for use to get there. He's alone at the cottage, could you stay with him for a while? You can travel with floo powder there. It's connected to the Floo Network. Hermione is having some problems with her magic. Don't worry, we'll sort it out.

Ron

Ginny looked at the last sentence. We'll sort it out. Ginny snorted. It was a never a good thing coming from Ron. Ginny's first thought when Ron had mentioned Harry was to throw the letter into the fireplace. She really didn't want to make life easier for Harry in any way, but something inside stopped her. She sighed and took a pinch of floo powder from the flowerpot on top of the fireplace and threw it into the flames.

Ron walked with Hermione in his arms through the rows of brick houses. Although Ron had tried to comfort her as much as he could, Hermione was still upset and didn't say much. Ron was sure that they would be able to fix this, he just didn't know how. Hermione was always the one with all the answers.

"Excuse me." Ron turned around and saw that a man in a grey suit and an odd matching hat was standing behind him . "Could you two be kind enough to help us? My daughter was playing in our garden and somehow got stuck under her play tractor. We need someone to help us lift the it off her," the man said and looked so helpless that Ron had no choice but to say "sure, of course", even though he thought that they themselves had enough problems on their plate, and didn't need strangers to come and ask for help. Ron looked at Hermione. She didn't say anything but followed as the man led them trough a pair of gates to a house just like Hermione's.

Ron and Hermione looked around the garden, but saw no play tractor. There was no sign of a child even living in the house.

"Where is your daughter?" Ron asked suspiciously.

Suddenly the man with the suit hit Ron in the face. Ron took hold of the man's pocket but he jerked it away and the pocket tore apart. He hit Ron again, this time much harder. Another man appeared and attacked Hermione from behind. The last thing Ron saw before his head hit the pavement and he passed out, was Hermione being dragged away by the two men.

Although Ginny had used floo powder countless times, it had never felt so uncomfortable as it did now. Ginny had never seen a fireplace so dirty filled with dust and ash. Nobody had bothered to clean up in front of it, so Ginny landed under a pile of old chairs. Ginny crawled from under the chairs and finally saw where she had landed. The inside of the cottage was small. Ginny could only see that the kitchen and bedroom had been somewhat cleaned. Harry was nowhere to be seen. Ginny walked through the kitchen and back door to a overgrown garden in the back.

When she didn't see Harry near she began to walk through the woods until she arrived at a sandy road. Ginny saw Harry's figure walking away from her in the distance. She began to walk after him and soon caught up.

"Harry," Ginny called.

Harry turned around with a sour look. "What are you doing here? Didn't you tell me to stay away from you?" he said and continued to walk away from Ginny.

"Yes," Ginny said and tried to sound calm, although Harry's attitude towards her bothered Ginny, "but Ron and Hermione are in trouble."

This caught Harry's attention and he stopped walking. "In what kind of trouble?"

"I don't know. Ron didn't say much. We should get back, it's getting dark soon and we have a long way to go. We might not find it if it's dark." Harry didn't look at Ginny but merely nodded. The atmosphere was strained and Ginny let Harry walk in front of her in silence.

They had walked for what seemed longer than half-an-hour and the woods had become darker, when Ginny stopped to look around. She did not recognise the place and she was sure that it hadn't taken her thirty minutes to find Harry.

"Are you sure this is the right way to go?" Ginny asked but before Harry could answer the two most unlikely persons to meet in the middle of the woods came walking towards them. Draco and Snape were just as surprised to see Ginny and Harry as they were to see them.

"Lost a brother have you?" Draco said scorning at Ginny before casting a look of hatred at Harry.

"What do you mean by that?" Ginny said hostilely but Harry didn't listen. The wound from Dumbledore's murder was still fresh. He was staring fixedly at Snape. He had imagined countless times what he would do when he saw Snape. Most of the times he had hoped that the next time he saw that greasy hair, was when his body was being buried. The longer he stared at Snape the more convinced Harry became that Snape wouldn't walk away alive.

"Murderer," spat Harry and heightened his wand "You're a murderer and a betrayer and for that you must die."

"You're going to lower yourself to my level?" Snape said. "Dumbledore wouldn't have wanted that."

"Don't you dare say his name!" Harry yelled furiously, but Snape seemed unbothered. He smiled his usual twisted smile.

"Draco, let's go!" Snape ordered. "It's not their time yet and when their time do come. I will be there to watch."

Draco stood still. It looked like there was a struggle behind his eyes. He looked at Snape and then at Harry. Before Harry could react Draco pointed his wand at Harry chest and yelled, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"