He merely looked at Hermione and she instantly said in amazement " They won't break! Harry, they won't break!"

"Hermione, are you on something?" Harry asked.

Snape smirked. "Now that story time is over, children, have you any questions?"

"Um, yeah! What was up with his mom?" Harry asked pointing to Malfoy, who scowled at him.

"Mr. Malfoy was unable to produce children, so he called on a friend to help him out."

"At least my father knew I wasn't really his, Potter!"
"Sod off, Malfoy!"

"Your idiot father didn't know squat! And it was right in his face too!"

"Well, your bloody father wasn't man enough to have his own kids, even if my father didn't he could've if he wanted to!"

" Yeah, that makes him so much better, why was your mother sneaking around with this one! If he was man enough, why did your mother go looking for more?"

"SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!" Hermoine screeched through tears, so that everyone in The Leaky Cauldron stopped talking and turned around. Through gritted teeth, she told Snape "Put a silencing charm around us, now!"

"Silencio." he muttered.

"YOU TWO HAD BETTER SHUT YOUR MOUTHS RIGHT NOW! YOU GUYS KEEP PICKING ON EACHOTHER, AND NEITHER OF YOU SEE HOW GOOD YOU HAVE IT!" the boys stared at her. " At least you two were wanted! I was a product of alcohol! I was a mistake! They decided they didn't want me from the off! Harry, your mother and father welcomed you warmly, and Malfoy, your parents did it just so you were born! I got to go live with muggles, and not have an inkling of magic in my life until I went to Hogwarts! They didn't want me!" tears gushed out of her eyes and rushed furiously down her cheeks, like a powerful river. " It wouldn't have mattered to anyone if I wasn't born. you guys were coveted jewels, and I was just an old newspaper, thrown away on the first dustbin available." she said in a whisper.

"I haven't the faintest idea of what you're talking about." Snape said quietly. "You are the best thing I could have hoped for. I did have to give you up, it broke my heart, but I knew it would be best for you. And look at you now. Polite, for the most part, smart, beautiful, kind, loving, what more could I ask for in a daughter?" Hermione's face softened. "And that's a lot more than I can say about these boneheads."

"Well, I guess we know who daddy's favorite is, eh, Potter?"

"You got that right."

"Well, to that end, here is the rest of your lullaby, and I'm off for now. Weasley?"

"Huh?" said all three Weasley boys simultaneously.

"Take Malfoy with you, Lupin will be expecting him." With that, Snape was gone.

Hermione picked up the parchment sitting on the table and read it thoroughly. "Oh my gosh!"

"What?" asked Harry lamely, not actually interested in what the rest of their lullaby was.

"Come on, we need to get to the Burrow right now!" Grabbing Harry's hand, she pushed her way through the crowd, and into a fireplace. Flinging down the floo powder, she said "the Burrow." Once at the Burrow, she waited impatiently for Harry and Malfoy to arrive and when they did, dragged them up to Ron's room. There she found Ron playing with a snitch. "Ron, get out."

"Wait a minute this is my room! Why's Malfoy here? I want in!"

"Ronald, I love you dearly, but if you would like to see the age of 18 I suggest you get out of your room, now!"

"Who's gonna make me?"

"I can control you more than you know, Weasley." she said acidly.

They stared each other down for several seconds. "Fine, I'm out, but you owe me Granger."

"Good, out with you!" Ron scampered out the door as Harry and Malfoy whispered furiously to one another, until they noticed Hermione staring at them. "Would you like to share with the rest of the class?"

"Not particularly, professor, but we'd like to know why you made us come up here without Ron." Harry said cheekily.

"Did you understand what he was telling us?" The boys stood silently. "WORK TOGETHTER! Duh! Who were the people in the song? Us. What was with the sticks? The sticks represent us. We have to work together in order to win! With my brain, Malfoy's craftiness, and Harry's strength, we can beat him!Our father has given us the key we need to do it!"

"A song and a story?" Malfoy said skeptically.

"Yes. The end of the song Tells us where the horcruxes are! Listen:

Part of the soul is in his black book

One is in a perilous cave

Surrounded by the sea

Hufflepuff's pride is the gardens

Where a garden wouldn't normally be

Ravenclaw rightfully stays with her books

The next resides where poser muggles got burned at the stake

because of a gossiping girl

The only things left are he and his pet

My children, please get all of these."

"OK, and…" said Harry

"Ugh! The hanging gardens at Geeza, the library of Alexandria, and Salem! Are you two honestly that thick!".

"Ok, so let's go." Said Harry thickly.

"Harry, grow some brains, first of all, we don't know what we're looking for, we don't know what know kind of protection he has against us, and nobody is going to let us just waltz around the place to find them." Malfoy said.

"Wait a minute, why are we trusting him, again?"

"Because, the only way to win the war is if we do it together." Said Hermoine.

"That's what Snape said." Said Harry defiantly "He also told Dumbledore that he wasn't working for Voldemort anymore. AND THEN KILLED HIM!"

"I'm not sure that Snape is entirely evil, though."

"Of course he's evil! He's the one who told Voldemort the prophecy! He's the one who had my parents killed, who made it so I had to live with the Dursleys all my life, and the one who watched my every move in the only place I ever called home. And, we're his flesh and blood." Harry fell to the floor, having worked himself up into a fit. "Read, Hermoine! Read everything about horcruxes you can! I want this to end now!" he got to his knees, and grabbed the bottom of Malfoy's shirt. "Go to Nokturn Alley! Get our sister books! Formulate plans to get them! This nightmare has got to end!" Hermione began to comfort Harry while Malfoy dissaperated to Nokturn Alley.

Ron entered the room, to find Harry curled up in Hermione's arms, sobbing. "Harry, what's wrong, mate?" Hermione shot him a look that clearly stated 'don't start'.

"Everything's wrong!"

Ron instantly knew that Harry was having one of his 'the world's crashing down on me again' tantrums. "It's alright, mate." Ron said , trying not to sound so patronizing. "want me to go get Gin?" he asked, shuddering.

Harry nodded his head jerkily, his red face glistening with tears, contrasting his raven hair. Harry sniffled. "Hermione, do you love me? As your brother, I mean?"

"Of course, Harry. I loved you before this whole ordeal, and I will love you until it is over with."

"Will you do me a favor?"

"Sure."

"Marry Ron."

"What?"

"Marry him. He'll take forever to ask you, but, say yes."

"What made you think of that?"
"I love Ginny so much, and if she weren't so young, I'd ask her to marry me in a heart beat. I know how hard it would be on me for her to say no to me. Ron's different, though. If you did it to him, he'd die." He said weakly.

"Why would I ever do that? I love him too much. And besides, Ginny would never do that to you."

"Hermione, I'm so glad I met you. You're the closest thing I've ever had to a mother."

"What are you talking about, I'm 16! I don't-"

"You listen to me. Make me feel good about being me. Yell at me if I don't do my homework. You even help me with my girl problems."

"I don't think Ron is a much better alternative."

"Oy! Apparently, I'm just fine in that area, unless you'd beg to differ."

"Ron, the only thing you could give tips to him on is kissing. That is your only saving grace. Oh and of course, those lovely freckles."

Harry got up from his current position, and went into Ginny's arms. " I don't deserve you. You're too good for me!" He cried breaking back down into tears again. " You shouldn't have taken me back! I'm not good enough!"

"Harry, It's ok! Really." She said soothingly. " You're anything I could've ever asked for. It's ok, shhhhh."

There was a faint 'pop' behind them "I've got 15 bloody books and I-" Malfoy looked from Ginny to Harry, and back again. " What's your problem, Potter?"

"Sod off, Malfoy!"

"Are we crying again because Mr. Potter was a dumb ass and couldn't see what was right under his nose?"

Harry leapt from Ginny and held his ground. "You should be one to talk, Malfoy! Your bloody father wasn't man enough to produce a legitimate Slytherin Prince!"

" Oh, yeah! Well, your mother-"

"Don't you even get started on my mother! Your mother's the one who looks like she's got something disgusting under her nose all of the time!"

"You should be glad witches wear robes! If not everyone would have seen the tremendous amount of stretch marks, from when she was carrying your big ass head!"

"Your mother-"

"Shut-up, god damn it!" Ginny roared the boys glowered at each other, with arms crossed.

"Oh, no! You're not going to do that thing mom did, are you?" Ron groaned.

"HUG!" Ginny commanded.

The boys turned "What!"

"Hug, now! Until you can stop fighting." The boys stood still in shock, looking at Ginny as if she had asked them to jump into a lake of carnivorous leeches. Pointing her wand at them, she said "Aveclefrere!" Harry and Malfoy were drawn together as if there were giant magnets in their stomachs.

Ron fell to the floor in laughter, seeing Harry and Malfoy Hugging. "'Mione, go get … camera!" he gasped between giggles.

"No!" Harry and Malfoy yelled together.

"Can you behave, children?" Ginny said in a mocking tone.

The boys rolled their eyes, and gave her a dirty look.

"Tell each other you're sorry."
"Sorry." They muttered quickly.

"Ok." She said with a smile. She let them apart, and within an instant, they began quarreling again.

"That was all your fault, Potter!"

" I don't think so! If you hadn't been so cheeky about me crying!"

" Well, if you'd act like a man once and a while, perhaps your girlfriend wouldn't intervene! I mean seriously, who's got the balls in that relationship!"

" Oh yes, because you're so much more of a man than me. Because of course you don't need two cronies who are as sharp as a sac of wet kittens to back you up anytime you take on a first year!"

"Crabbe and Goyle may not be bright, but their my friends, and by the way. Look who's talking. You've got that hot headed Weasley to back you up!"

"Ron can at least cast a summoning charm on something other than a cupcake!"

"What my friends do with their magical abilities is none of your business, Potter!"

"Boys, would you like to share a little brotherly love again, or are you going to stop this endless conversation." Ginny asked shortly.

The boys glowered at one another, before Hermione cut in (Ron was disheartened at the abrupt halt of their snog session). " So, you've got books for me?"

Malfoy picked the bag of books he had dropped when he got there, and growled "Here are your damned books."

"Thanks." She said brightly. Hermione curled up in the corner of ron's bed and began reading avidly.

As Harry was just about to turn and leave, a screeching owl flew into Ron's room, landing on Malfoy's head. Harry chucked when he got the owl down, because Malfoy franticly began fixing his hair. Sliding the letter from the envelope, Harry read:

Dear Harry Potter,

It is my great pleasure to be writing to you, for you see, I am Regulus Anthony Black. You may or may not know who I am. I am Sirius Black's brother, but more importantly, I am the man who has destroyed 5 parts of Voldemort's soul. I wanted you to know this because I heard from a friend that you were in search of them. You only need to defeat Nagini, the snake, and, Voldemort, himself. I trust you will be wanting more answers, but alas, you will have to wait until the final battle is over. Good luck, Harry. Please, bring peace to both worlds.

Sincerely,

Regulus Black