Note: Hi, sorry if this took too long. I hope I could make it up to you guys. I was just very busy with school and my other story. Hope this is good enough. Enjoy and review!

Chapter 7: Unexpected

There are many things in this world that needs careful consideration. One of those things is your decisions. Because if you don't think carefully, many things might result. Unluckily, for his friends, Harry had been having a hard time deciding lately. Sirius's death still had effect on him, but they weren't as bad as before. Luckily, quidditch and the DA were there to help him clear his mind. That was until one morning…

Breakfast started out normally until the owl post started swarming above their heads dropping mail to the receivers. Hermione's daily prophet was left unattended because Hermione was busy trying to finish her breakfast. Harry took it out for a while and read it.

Ron and Hermione watched as Harry's eyes went from shock to deep anger.

"He can't keep doing this," he muttered furiously. After a moment, Ron asked, "What's the matter, mate?" Harry thrust the newspaper to both of them. Hermione and Ron huddled together to get a good look. Hermione covered her mouth with her hand and gasped. Ron turned pale white. The headline showed 3 pictures. One was like a completely devastated Muggle village. The other picture showed 3 muggle-born families which were killed in the accident. The other showed a blurry picture of cloak men, one of them was clearly someone who looked like a human serpent. The headline says the children of the muggle couples worked in the Ministry of magic. The pictures of 2 young wizards and a witch were encircled in the family portraits, all of them beaming hard. Hermione looked from the exploded houses to the happy family pictures and back again. She felt great hot tears forming in her eyes. This couldn't be happening. She never knew that the Dark Lord was this bad.

"I've seen these people before," Ron said, finding his voice at last. "My dad was talking about them yesterday. They were the new young Unspeakables in the Mystery department in the ministry. They are from America."

Harry looked at him gravely, "No doubt Voldermort got the wrong information about them. They probably don't know anything about what he had been finding."

Ron and Hermione looked at each other. "You mean, like the real wizards who know about it are…hidden?"

"I don't know, but I want to find out. This is between Voldemort and me. I won't let other families sacrifice their lives for something He wanted!"

With that, Harry stood up and walked away.

"No, Harry!" Hermione said between sobs. Many heads in the Great Hall turned to them. Ron got to his feet and shouted, "What are you looking at? There is nothing to watch here!" Everyone silently went back to their own business. Ron ran after Harry muttering, "What is he talking about? He'll get killed."

Hermione stayed behind. She knew these kinds of incidents and she knew she couldn't stop Harry, neither could Ron, but she could maybe get some ideas from someone….even if the "someone" is really a "something" now.

The whole day was a blur. Harry barely said a word and Ron and Hermione could not even start a conversation with him Hermione entered the common room and found Ron sitting on one of the couches in front of the fire. He had a very miserable expression. His face showed anxiousness and confusion. His chin was rested on one of his palm, while the other hung loosely at his side. Hermione looked from him to the door of her dorm, and back to him. She shrugged and approached Ron. She sat down opposite him.

"Hi, Ron," she started slowly.

He looked at her and shrugged. For a moment she saw sadness in his eyes. But she knew what caused this.

"Ron, it'll pass." What supposed to be a pathetic encouragement turned to be a wake up call.

"How do you know?" Ron demanded. "It wasn't like this before. He is not telling us something, Hermione. He is going to kill himself if he does something. This is exactly what, what You-know-who wants. He wants Harry to do something stupid. What happened last year would repeat itself. He is not thinking clear. He changed after You-know-who returned. Don't you get it!"

Ron's sudden outburst shocked her, but it was not time to argue back. Anyways, she was not in the mood. She wrapped her arms around Ron sympathetically. Ron was definitely not expecting this.

"I know Ron, I know," she said letting go. "I know you are worried about him, because I'm worried too. But I think I know why he didn't tell us everything."

"Why?" Ron asked giving Hermione a glare, but still down-hearted.

"Because he doesn't want us to end up like Sirius," Hermione said feeling tears on the corner of her eyes.

"Your right," Ron said sighing. "But I don't want him to end like Sirius either."

"You're a great friend, Ron," Hermione said giving him a smile.

"And you're not?" Ron said returning it. "I'm going to bed, goodnight, Hermione."

He stood up and started walking towards his dorm. Hermione picked up her bag and headed towards the opposite direction. But she heard a voice, "Hermione." She turned around.

Ron grinned at her, "Thanks." Hermione grinned back and opened the door. 'Ron had never thanked me like that before,' Hermione thought. 'It was unexpected, too'. She shook her head and convinced herself that he was just upset and so was her. 'I had to convince, Harry,' she thought this time with a frown. 'He's affecting everyone, including those he's protecting.'

Hermione pulled out the red journal and flipped the page to where she stopped.

"Help us, Lily. Tell us if your son would ever be cheerful again. Will he stop this change, please tell me," Hermione muttered to the book, like it was really Harry's dead mother.

December 25

Dear Diary,

Yay! It's Christmas!

"What a nice entry to read at a time like this," Hermione said sarcastically.

The day I'd been anticipating this day since I got of the Hogwarts Express last week. It was a fantastic day. Of course, it all started with the opening of the presents (which was the best part of the day). Mind you, there are quite some surprises for me under the tree this year. Not only surprise as in gifts, but also 'surprises' as in 'things I didn't expect'. I've got quite good presents this year. From Mom, I got the usual home-made Christmas cookies and also some new winter clothes (typical mom). Dad gave me some new books to read during the holidays, since he knew that I love reading. From Sam, I've got a very unique jewelry set. You could tell by first impressions that it is magical. The gems change color every minute and the chains could change from gold, to silver to pearl white. They were really beautiful. From Wilma, I receive a watch with weird knobs and buttons. Up till now I'm still trying to figure out what are all the knobs for. Violet and Katie gave me a board game (which Petunia said to be full of evil voodoo magic) which has a beautiful diamond in the middle with different coloured smoke in the swirling around in the center. You could only move the pieces by using your wand. What's more, they talk back too (if they don't like your move). I can't wait to play it with Sam and Will when I return to Hogwarts. I also received presents from my uncles and aunts and grandma. She knitted me again a green sweater with the "Lily" sewed across it. It's a bit childish, but I still wear it (only when I'm at home).There was also a gift under the tree that I thought was lost. In fact, it came as a shock to me. It was totally unexpected. It was rapped in an elegant purple Christmas wrapping paper. Even if it was very small (I could hold it in my palm), it stood out among the brightly wrapped presents under the tree. Inside was velvet box. Inside the box was even more beautiful. It was a silver necklace. A single beautifully carved diamond. It was also enveloped in thin vine-like strips of silver, like a fruit growing on the soil. No one had ever given me such beauty. The most surprising part of it is the person who gave it to me. I had never expected him to give me something like this! You guessed right, it was from the infamous James Potter. It came as a shock to me really. I never thought he would give me something as beautiful as this. My parents were amazed and asked a lot of questions about him. Man, I'm going to kill him for that! I told them he was just the Head Boy, but there seem to be doubts. Petunia acted much worst. I don't know what was wrong with her (maybe she was jealous), but she acted like what I received was rubbish and said all kinds of nasty things about me…really nasty things.. To be honest, I was really hurt and upset. Mom was angry at her and dad didn't understand why she was acting like this towards me. We used to be great friends, but that was before I received my Hogwarts letter before 1st years. From then onwards, she seemed to hate me a lot. Well, I hope she forgets about it someday. What's the matter with me? It is Christmas isn't it? So I guess I have to be happy. I'm just writing about the best (and worst) part of the day, because if I wrote all the happenings today, I will end up filling at least 6 pages of my journal. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Cheers, Lily

"This doesn't help much. Maybe if I read more, I'll find out something else," Hermione muttered. Hermione was so obsessed in reading the diary, that she didn't hear a certain someone snuck out of their dormitory to get a glass of water. Without warning, the diary was taken out of Hermione's hands.

Note: Hang in there and find out who will know about the book Hermione has been keeping (oops! I said a very big clue there).