The characters depicted in this story are from the Harry Potter Series of books. They are owned and copyrighted by J.K Rowling, Scholastic, and Warner Brothers. The characters not depicted in the books are property of my friends from the Official Harry Potter Message Boards on the Warner Brothers Harry Potter website. Alex is my own creation

Harry Potter and the Druid Wars

Chapter 1

Harry woke up to find frost on his window and the dorm deserted. He looked outside to see that the ground was covered in snow. He sighed and got dressed. He would be leaving for Hogsmeade with Ron and Hermione after breakfast. It had been almost two months since Blackcat and Alex disappeared. This was also the last weekend before the Christmas holidays and the last Hogsmeade visit. Harry walked out of his room, went to Kagato's room and knocked on the door.

"Kagato, may I come in?"

The door slowly opened and Kagato looked at Harry.

"Not right now Harry. I need to get some things done."

It was quite obvious from Kagato's appearance that he hadn't been sleeping or eating very much. He slowly shook his head and sighed.

"You have fun in Hogsmeade, ok?"

Harry sighed.

"You can't stay locked in your room forever Kagato. You missed the last Hogsmeade visit. Please, come with us."

Kagato frowned.

"I don't think Ron would want me there. I'm fine Harry. Besides, I need to catch up on some homework. I was planning on spending the day in the library."

Harry grimaced a little. When Ron found out that Cat and Alex were missing he announced to the Great Hall that Kagato was a werewolf. Harry had noticed that for the first few weeks, Kagato was shunned by most of the students. But now the only ones still saying anything were the Slytherins. Ron had stopped talking about it all together and pretended that he couldn't hear anything when Kagato's name came up. He guessed that everyone else had started to feel sorry for Kagato because Alex was gone. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Have it your way Kagato. Do you want me to get you anything from Honeydukes?"

Kagato smiled a little.

"Yeah, if you wouldn't mind. Could you get me some Chocolate Frogs and some Fizzing Whizbees?"

"Sure Kagato. Anything else?"

He shook his head.

"Nope, that should do it. Hang on and let me get you the money for them."

"No, don't worry about it. You can pay me back when I give them to you. I'll see you later Kagato."

"See you later Harry."

Kagato closed his door and Harry went down stairs to the common room. He did a quick scan of the room and saw Ron sitting with Hermione. He walked over and they stood up.

"What took you so long Harry? I'm starving."

Ron crossed his arms and stared at Harry. Harry looked away.

"I was, well...I went to check on Kagato." Harry glanced at Ron, who was now turning red. He looked at Hermione and quickly spoke. "Let's go and get breakfast. Come on you guys."

Harry started for the portrait; Hermione looked at Harry, then at Ron and shook her head.

"Well, this is going to be a fun day!"

Hermione grabbed Ron and followed Harry out of the portrait. They had to run to catch up to Harry. Ron remained silent as Hermione looked at Harry.

"So, how is he?"

Harry looked at Hermione and frowned.

"He's not doing so well. He is taking this thing very hard. But it would be helpful if everyone got over certain things and started talking to him again."

Harry shot a look at Ron who stopped in his tracks.

"I will not speak to him Harry. For all we know it's his fault that Cat and Alex are gone. Besides, you can't tell us what happened that day now can you? You passed out. He was awake and still won't tell us what happened. Until they come back and it's proven he had nothing to do with it, I will not speak to him!"

Ron rushed past both Harry and Hermione.

"Don't worry Harry. Everything will be ok. You'll see."

Hermione smiled and gently squeezed Harry's shoulder as they continued walking to the Great Hall.