A/N: I know it has been forever since I posted anything, but I have been busy with classes. I mean I get home in the early evening, do homework, and by the time I'm done it's time to go to bed so I can get up at the butt crack of dawn and do it all over again. My creativity has been limited to so-so poetry and occasionally playing a song on the piano. It also didn't help that I suffered from a bit of writer's block. I actually deleted what I had of this chapter and went in an entirely new direction. I am procrastinating writing papers for school to finish this chapter which has taken me way too long to write.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, though I hope one day I can create characters and a universe just as cherished as these.

Chapter 4

You Can Never Go Home Again

Hermione and Ron arrived at the Lovegood house and rang the bell and waited. There was no answer. They rang again. Still no answer. Hermione noticed that the door was slightly ajar. Fearing the worse, but hoping for the best, they slowly entered the house. The house had been ransacked.

"Oh, Ron," Hermione croaked softly and sadly. "What happened here? Were they here when it happened?" her voice was becoming more and more hysterical with every word.

Ron pulled her close and hugged her. "I don't know," he whispered into her hair. He was terrified. "We should go to the Burrow. I bet my dad knows where they are and what happened here. If they were here when this happened, the Dark Mark would be over the house, right?" Hermione relaxed a little, "You're right," then her eyes opened wide in horror "Unless they took them somewhere for questioning or something. What if whoever did this intercepted my owl to her and has figured out what I was asking?"

Ron faltered, "I cannot deny that it is possible that they were taken, but I can say that it had nothing to do with you. They obviously came here for something that they knew about Luna or her dad before they even arrived here, 'Mione. Don't blame yourself like I know you are doing right now. Besides, your letter just mentioned us coming for a visit, you didn't even mention wanting to talk about something important. We should leave."

"We cannot go now, Ron! We need to check that they are not laying somewhere hurt, but unable to call out." Ron took the downstairs, Hermione the upstairs. The first room she came to looked like a guest room. There was no one in there. The next room was the loo. What she saw in the next room made her gasp. Books had been torn to pieces, the mattress and spring board were leaning up against the wall. There were also scorch marks on the walls, dresser, and window seat. Luna must have been in here when they arrived. It was definitely Luna's room. Hermione didn't find anyone and was about the leave the room, when she noticed something strange. The window seat was no longer that. Instead, it was a safe. Hermione called out for Ron. She shrunk the safe and made it feather light. She ran downstairs to Ron. "I think I found what they were looking for," she showed the miniaturized safe to him. "Let's Floo back to the Burrow from their fireplace. I want to try to open it there."

Ginny was nervous and excited and a little nauseous. Tomorrow Harry would be at the Burrow. It felt like she hadn't seen him in ages and not just a few days. How was she supposed to act around him? Their breakup had been mutual, for practical reasons, but it was still a little awkward. She couldn't kiss him anytime she felt like it or even just hold his hand. She had to stay in neutral territory or else it would be too confusing for both of them. At least I have tonight and tomorrow morning to calm down enough so I can be neutral tomorrow. She wondered if he was just as nervous about seeing her. Probably not; I mean he has so much on his plate as it is.

The wedding was the day after tomorrow; Ron and Hermione would be arriving with Harry as well. The closer the day of the wedding got, the calmer Mrs. Weasley got. I must be doing all the worrying for her. I mean, usually she would be a nerv—Ginny's thoughts were interrupted by Hermione and then Ron falling out of the fire.

"What are you guys doing here?" exclaimed Ginny. "Where's Harry?" she asked as a sudden fear gripped her heart and stomach. Ron dusted himself off and replied, "At Hogwarts; he's perfectly safe. Don't worry. As for why we are here, we were just at the Lovegood's and well…" he hesitated telling his sister such frightening news about her friend, "it was ransacked and there was no trace of Luna or her father. We came here early to talk to dad. Where is he?"

Ginny didn't reply because she had not heard a word he said after hearing the words "no trace of Luna." She noticed her brother staring at her, "What?" she asked, truly confused. "Why are you staring at me? I'm not going to cry," she said just as a sob shuddered through her body as she tried to hold it back. Hermione put her hand on Ginny's back in an effort to soothe her. Ron knew he would not be able to get any information about their father's whereabouts from his sister, so he looked at the family clock. His father was still at work, but it was past time for him to be home.

Then someone fell out of the fire. Ginny did not expect to see who she saw there at all. "Harry! Are you okay? What happened at Hogwarts? You look terrible," exclaimed Hermione. "Thanks, I think," replied Harry before he flopped down onto a chair at the table. "My visit to Hogwarts did not exactly go as planned at all. In fact, it was a right disappointment if you want to know the truth." Ron sat down beside him, "What happened, mate? What did Dumbledore tell you?"

"What!" exclaimed and asked Ginny as she stood. "Dumbledore? Will someone please explain to me what is going on? First Ron and Hermione come here telling me the Lovegoods are missing and now Harry is talking to Dumbledore? Am I the only non-mental person in this house?" Ron looked at his sister, "Wow that was a right scary impression of Mum, Ginny. We told you all we know and now let's give Harry a chance to tell us what happened." He looked at Harry's face, "Or didn't happen."

"I'll start from when we three parted ways. You two might as well sit down too," Harry said as he gestured for the girls to sit down. Then he began his tale.

Harry trudged up the path leading to Hogwarts, the only place he had ever been able to call home, besides the Burrow. His mind was filled with questions he was going to ask the late headmaster in his portrait. I'll ask him where he thinks I can find the other horcruxes and why he had trusted Snape so implicitly. Then I'll tell him that I will make Snape pay. Harry had reached the door to the castle. He didn't know whether to knock or just walk in on his own. He decided to walk in because in order to hear his knock someone would have to be in the front hall and there was no guarantee of that.

Harry had thought he would never come back here, at least not so soon after determining that he would not be returning for his seventh year. He ran up the stairs up to the seventh floor and came to a stop in front of the gargoyle leading to Dumbledore's office. He took a moment to catch his breath before trying out some old stand-by passwords on for size. "Lemon-drop," he said and nothing happened. He continued, "Peppermint stick! Sugar plum! Chocolate Frog! Canary Cream?" to no avail—the gargoyle was as still as, well, a statue. Then he realized: This is McGonagall's office now, so think of something sensible for a password. "Spectacles! Transfiguration!" too obvious, he thought. "Umm…" Harry's efforts were thwarted with a throat being cleared behind him.

"Back so soon, Mr. Potter?" said the new headmaster as she smirked at her pupil. "Bumblebee," she said and the gargoyle jumped aside winding stairs started rising toward her office. "I was wondering when you would realize how you could possibly speak with Albus. I cannot make any guarantees, however. It is an unexplained mystery exactly how much information a portrait persona can remember about life. I must say that he keeps me highly entertained with quick jokes and complaints about never receiving a pair of socks as a gift in life. Just remember that the portrait is just a remnant of his personality and it may retain some memories, but not all. I've asked him plenty of questions about…well, you know what about. He hasn't been very open with me; he has seemed to be expecting you at any moment."

Harry heard only half of what she said. Before she had finished, they had reached the office and Harry had been taken aback by how different it was than it had been. Gone were the silver instruments that had decorated the room and also gone was Fawkes's perch and of course, Fawkes himself. In place of them were a massive amount of books upon books upon books. Harry imagined that if Hermione ever had an office like this, it would look exactly like McGonagall's. The only thing that was the same really, other than the desk and chair, were the Sorting Hat and Gryffindor's sword and the portraits of the former headmasters and headmistresses. Harry turned his atttention to one portrait in particular.

"Ah, Harry! Good to see you son! I take it from the determined look in your eyes that you have some questions for me. Well, let me go ahead and answer them for you. I can't remember a thing."

Harry was in shock; partly because Dumbledore was speaking to him and partly because of what was being said. He sputtered, "What! Are you bloody kidding me! You mean, you can't tell me anything? Anything at all! This is insane!" Harry was in a right tirade now, though he did restrain himself from destroying the office as he had his fifth year.

Dumbledore simply smiled. "Ah, the passion of youth! Now, Harry I did not have anything to tell you. In fact, I have something very important to tell you. I have some advice for you and something to think about. It is simply this: The right thing to do is usually the hardest also. That is my advice. Now, for a little fact that I am sure you are itching for. I want you to draw your own conclusion from what I am about to tell you. Trust Severus Snape, Harry."

Harry opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, McGonagall beat him to it. "Albus! Are you completely nutters! Snape murdered you in cold blood and you trusted him! And now you're telling Harry to do the same? The boy doesn't have a death wish!"

Harry finally spoke, "I could never trust that foul, wretched, dodgy, tosser. The next time I see him, he's dead and that's all I have to say in the matter." The old headmaster slunk down in his chair and got comfortable for a nap.

"My trip here was a total waste of time. Sorry for taking up your time, Professor."

"You'll have to use a fireplace in Hogsmeade. All of the ones in Hogwarts are closed off to travel right now, for obvious reasons." Harry nodded in understanding and left the office, fighting the urge to slam the oak door.

Harry finished his story and his friends all had different emotions playing on their faces. Ron looked furious, Ginny looked confused, and Hermione was deep in thought. She was the first to speak up, "Well, that was a waste of time."

"This might be worth our time," Hermione said as she pulled out the safe and enlarged it. "I found it in Luna's room, it had had a glamour on it so the Death Eaters missed it. It wore off when I was in her room. Lucky coincidence, I guess. I wonder how to open it."

It was not a normal safe; there was combination lock. In fact, there was no visible lock at all. "Maybe you open it with a password," suggested Ron. Hermione looked at him like he had just grown another head, "You're brilliant!" Ron blushed. "Now, what would Luna have as a password?" Hermione began trying different words and phrases, "The Quibbler." Nothing. "Radishes. Buttercaps. Crumpled Horned Snorack?" At the last phrase, the safe door opened. "Well, that was easy." Hermione reached into the safe to pull out whatever Luna felt was so important that it needed to be hidden in such an elaborate way. She pulled out a book and some notes that were written in a language that she did not recognize.