Disclaimer: I don't own hp
Ron and Hermione sat there staring him. He lowered his hand. Suddenly Ron was enraged.
"What?" Harry heard the anger in his voice, and suddenly he was mad as well. How could they have thought he had started ignoring them? After all they had been through, shouldn't they have realized something was wrong, even if Hedwig didn't try and get help? He knew they couldn't have done anything, but they had no right to be mad at him.
"You heard me," he said icily. "I'm Harry Potter."
"How dare you? How dare you!?" Ron exclaimed.
"How dare I what?"
"Try and be friends with us again? How dare you try something like that, after what you did? We're going to the Ministry right-" Harry interrupted him. He was losing his temper, fast. Hermione was watching them with wide eyes, she knew how short both their tempers were, and she also knew what they could do if they got mad enough.
"No, how dare you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You basically abandoned me. Did it ever occur to you that I might not be able to write to you? Sure Hedwig didn't come get help, but maybe that was because she was told not to"
"If you were in trouble, why would you have told her not to go and get help? If someone else told her, she'd still go."
"Because there would have been no point in trying to get help; nobody would be able to find the place where I was it's the Death Eater Headquarters do you really think they'd make it easy to find? And even if they did find the place, they would be totally outnumbered by Death Eaters and they'd be killed quickly."
"Oh I get it, famous Harry Potter plays the hero by not getting help, since that could hurt other people. You know, you're not the only person who can fight Death Eaters."
"Lord Voldemort also stays there, and I'm the only person who can possibly kill him, it's the prophecy." For a second they were silent. Then Harry thought about Ron's words. "Is that really what you guys think of me then?" They looked confused. "That I'm always just trying to play the hero who saves everyone? I always thought you would be the last people to think that. I guess I was wrong."
"Well, it's true." Ron knew it wasn't, but he was too angry and upset to step down. Harry stood up angrily.
"I also always thought that if Ron did start believing something like this, Hermione would understand. But apparently not."
"What? She hasn't said anything!" Ron exclaimed. "Don't go accusing her of betraying you."
"Actually, I do have the right to do that. Right Hermione?" she looked up at him.
"W-what?"
"I was there at the ministry when you came to Fudge's office. I heard everything." Then he turned on his heel, and strode out.
"Ron, why did you do that?" Hermione hissed.
"Do what?"
"Start an argument between you two."
"Wait, you're on his side now? You believe his story?"
"Story? What story? Because of you there is no story to believe!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"If you had given him a chance to explain we might all be friends again by now!"
"Given him a chance? He would have just made up a stupid story!"
"He might not have!"
"Hermione, face it. He just abandoned us."
"Well then why did he come back?"
"He got assigned to this case with us."
"How are you so sure he abandoned us anyway?"
"It's obvious! Remember the reasons?"
"Yeah, but what if he really was telling the truth a moment ago? About being kidnapped by the Death Eaters and that most likely nobody would be able to find the place, and even if they did there would be Lord Voldemort there?"
"He was gone for four years. Voldemort would have killed him by then"
"Maybe, but maybe not, we should go find him."
"Hermione we have no chance of finding him! He'll be long gone by now."
"Still, we know he lives at Hogwarts. We can go there, and if he's not in his room, we can wait for him to come back." Ron sighed in defeat.
"All right, but first let's go get you a broom." Hermione jumped up.
"Oh yeah! There's a quidditch store here. Let's go!" forgetting all about Harry for the moment, they both grabbed their brooms and ran to the quidditch store. They walked inside and the first things they saw were signs on every wall saying: Nimbus 2000's and 2001's on sale! 2000's for 50 galleons! 2001's for 63! Get them now, before they run out!
"Wow! 63 galleons, that's so cool!" Hermione exclaimed. She rushed up to a shelf, and grabbed the first Nimbus 2001 she saw. She was making her way to the counter to pay for it, when Ron stopped her.
"You can't just take any broom. You have to make sure it's in perfect condition, see this one had a lot of broken and bent twigs. Come on, I'll find you a good one." He inspected almost every broom in the New Brooms section while Hermione just stood in the main part of the store. Finally, after fifteen minutes, he came over to her and handed her a broom. She noticed he had another one in his hand, but she didn't pay attention to it. Instead she inspected her own broom. The twigs were all in perfect condition, the handle was polished and clean. There was nothing wrong.
"It's perfect!" she cried. "Thanks Ron!" They stepped into the line as he said,
"Your welcome. Look what I found." He stuck out the other broom. It was a Lightracer.
"You want to buy that? Ron, remember what happened today?"
"No, Hermione, I don't want to buy it. Oh it's your turn, I'll tell you later."
"Ok." Hermione paid for her broom, and they walked into the front of the store to get their brooms, which were on the customer's broom shelves. They were walking to the exit and Hermione asked "So what about the broom? And why are you still holding it?"
"I found it near the door, and nobody was standing with it."
"So….?"
"They don't sell Lighracers here yet. The reason they're having this sale, is so they have more room and money to buy Lighracers."
"Ron that means you stole it! Go put it back!" Ron sighed.
"Hermione, stop." She did as she was told, and looked at him questioningly. He handed her the broom. "Now, look at this, closely." She looked all over the broom but didn't notice anything. Then a light coming from the broom caught her attention. She looked at the spot where she saw the light, and saw some gold letters. They said H.P
"Does that mean this is Harry's broom?" she asked, handing the broomstick back to Ron.
"Most likely."
"But why was it there? We didn't see him anywhere in here. There's no way we could have missed him. There are three rooms, and you were in the New Brooms room, while I was in the main room. I never left this room, and we just passed the Used Brooms room and there was no one in there."
"Exactly why I took it; he would never have just left a broom like this somewhere, and then left."
"So then why was it there?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know. We should take it with us to Hogwarts."
"Yeah, let's go. It's getting late." They stepped outside, and saw a mob of people heading to the right of the quidditch store. They all crowded around something. Ron and Hermione looked at each other, and then headed over to the crowd. They couldn't see what everyone was trying to get a glimpse of, because of all the witches and wizards crowded in front of them.
"Excuse me? What is everyone looking at?" Ron asked a young witch, with blond hair. She didn't answer him, and instead kept pushing the people in front of her. "Ok thanks." Ron said sarcastically. He was about to ask someone else, when they heard a shout.
"Get away from me!" There were so many people chattering excitedly, that the two friends couldn't recognize the voice. Then suddenly they heard many cries of pain behind them. They looked over their shoulders and saw that there were tons of people standing behind them, most of them looking confused, some looking interested, and some grimacing in pain. The explanation for that came soon enough. A woman in high heels, bright pink robes, and a matching hat, was getting people out of the way by hitting them with her crocodile skin purse. The purse was pretty big, and it looked heavy. Hermione and Ron moved out of the way, just as the woman came, waving her bag around randomly, people leaping this way and that to avoid it.
"Who was that?" Hermione asked.
"Maria Skeeter, Rita Skeeter's daughter. Acts just like her. I'd stay clear."
"It looks like she's going to get to whoever's in the middle of the crowd. I feel really bad for them."
"Yeah me too. Wonder who it is?"
"Dunno. Some celebrity," Hermione said. Ron snorted.
"Maybe Lockhart's got his memory back? But then he'd be soaking up the attention instead of trying to get away."
"Maybe the person who shouted for them to get away wasn't the person in the middle, so it might be Lockhart."
"Whatever, let's get out of here." There was no way to get out of there easily besides flying so Hermione mounted her new broom, holding the school's one, and Ron did the same holding Harry's broom. They up above the crowd and saw photographers apparating at the scene. Suddenly there was a blue light and the people towards the middle of the mob flew back, hitting the people behind them and they in turn hit the witches and wizards in back of them. It kept going like that (the crowd was huge as it was the time of day most that Hogsmeade got the most visitors) until there was a clear path in front of the unfortunate person who everyone was trying to look at. Hermione and Ron looked down and realized it was a man. They saw that he was running out of the crowd, but he didn't make it. Maria Skeeter (who had been in the line of fire) had gotten back up, and was chasing after the celebrity. She took what looked like a flying jump but was really just her tripping on her eight inch heels, and grabbed the running man's ankles, bringing them down to the ground. He leapt up with his wand out. By then he was surrounded again. Ron and Hermione recognized him at once.
"Harry!" Hermione cried. He looked up at her. So did the mob.
"Catch!" Ron shouted as he threw down Harry's Lightracer. He caught it and mounted it as fast as he could. He flew out of the crowd; they were all watching him in awe of how fast the broom could go. He was followed by shouts of
"Is that a Lightracer?"
And:
"Wow! What an amazing broom. Where'd you get it?" Harry raced past Ron and Hermione, and they followed him. Soon they were flying over the countryside, towards a waterfall. Harry, seemingly unaware that the other two were behind him, landed on the rocks and sat down hugging his knees. Ron and Hermione landed softly behind him, and put their brooms next to his. It was only when they sat down beside him that he realized they were there.
"What do you want?" he asked harshly, though his voice was shaking slightly. Hermione realized he was crying. She put her arm around his shoulders but he shrugged it off. He wiped his eyes and repeated "What do you want?" this time he voice was strong, and clear.
"We…" Ron began. He looked uncomfortable.
"You….."
"We wanted to apologize. We should have listened to what you have to say before we, ok I, attacked you. We shouldn't have ever gotten mad at you when you stopped writing. You were right, just because Hedwig didn't get help, that didn't mean anything. I'm really sorry." Ron said, and it was obvious he meant it. Hermione stared at him. 'Where did that all come from?' she had never known Ron was so good with apologies. 'And when did he change his mind? A little while ago he hated Harry.' As if reading her mind, Ron went on. "I know I was really mad at you a while ago, but I thought it over in the quidditch store, and while we were in the crowd, and I realized we were wrong. I really want to hear your story now."
"Me too. And I'm also really sorry about what I said. That day at the Ministry I was just upset and worried at the same time and I couldn't hold it in any longer." Hermione said. Harry looked at them both. It looked like he was still mad, but then he smiled.
"Thanks guys." He sighed and stood up, looking over the waterfall, at the countryside. "I always came here when we were at Hogwarts, to think. I found the place when Sirius escaped from Azkaban. I used it most when he died. It really helped." He turned to look at his friends. "All right, I'll tell you what happened." Harry conjured up three blankets, and made a place to start a fire. After the fire was going, he handed Ron and Hermione two blankets, and kept one for himself. They all walled over to the fire, and sat down curled up in their blankets. The blankets were really warm, which was good since it was late at night, and it was cold near a waterfall, especially when there's no sunlight. They were mesmerized by the orange flames, jumping here and there, as if they were dancing. Finally Hermione spoke up.
"Harry?"
"What? Oh yeah." Switching positions so he was comfortable, he began. "Well, on Friday night, four years ago, I came home with a movie. It was tradition, even before we lived together, for Jess and I to watch a movie on Friday night. We had been doing it for a year, and neither of us had ever missed it. Anyway, I couldn't find him, so I decided he was running late. I went into my room to send Hermione a letter, and Hedwig was there looking all scared and frantic. When she saw me she flew over, and landed on my shoulder. I didn't pay attention to the fact that she was so distressed, and picked up the letter to tie it to Hedwig. Apparently it had been turned into a portkey, and I was taken to a place I didn't recognize. I found Jesse there tied up and gagged. I untied him, and conjured up my floo powder. He told me he had been kidnapped, and they told him I was a wizard.
"He was just about to go when Lucius Malfoy came in. Jesse barely made it. So Lucius warned me about how bad it would be if Jesse told anybody, and locked me in. I took the letter and sent it off with Hedwig, who was still with me.
"The next morning, Peter came in with food, and he seemed really scared of me. Whatever, that's not important. So I got your letter and the picture, Hermione." He pulled out the photograph, which he always kept with him. It was in bad condition, dirty, with fold marks, and torn at the edges, but it was still recognizable. Hermione gasped.
"You still have that? Oh my God!"
"Yeah how could I not?"
"Wow, anyway please continue," the young woman said.
"Ok. So then I hid the letters and picture, and Draco Malfoy came in. He took me to a room, and we got in a fight. Then Voldemort made him get off and I saw Snape. Voldemort told me that I wouldn't be able to use magic in my room, then that if I sent a letter to anybody they would die, um, oh yeah! Also that I can get letters, and my torture session would begin the next day." Ron and Hermione gasped. "Then Snape took me back to my room. The next day they took me into the room again and all the Death Eaters, and Tom, watched as I was locked in a room with see-through walls, and a dementor was let in. I got it to go away, but they let in more. Then after ten of them, I passed out. I think for two weeks. I got all of your last letters, and when I read the very last one, Malfoy Jr. brought me a newspaper from that day. It was the one where they started noticing me disappearing. It seemed you stopped looking a day early. And I got the letter from Dumbledore, and apparently the Death Eaters sent him a letter saying I was fine, after I got it.
"So the torture continued, though sometimes he used the crucatius curse. Anyway, after two years Peter came in and gave me floo powder, and then killed himself." At this point Ron interrupted him.
"But why?"
"Because of what he did to me and my family."
"Took him long enough" Ron sneered. Harry sighed.
"If he had done it before, I would still be locked up or dead."
"Oh. Never mind then."
"Yeah. On with the story." Harry said as he moved closer to the fire and continued. "Snape came in just as I was getting into the fireplace. He didn't even try and stop me; I suppose he was too shocked at what he saw. I bet he's dead now because of it."
"No, he's not," Hermione said.
"What?" Harry asked, confused.
"He reapplied for the potions job at Hogwarts, but Professor Lupin made sure he didn't get it. Not that Dumbledore would take him back. It appears he ran away, or was kicked out or something. He's living on an island somewhere."
"Oh. Professor Lupin's still there? I didn't know, I'll have to see him," Harry said.
"Ok enough with this talk about Snape and Lupin. Keep going," Ron said excitedly.
"All right, where was I? Oh right, I went to Fred and George's shop, and I told them everything. So they made me go hide in the backroom, when Draco came in looking for me. He went into the backroom but didn't find me. He did knock over the many boxes of dungbombs I was hiding behind." Ron snickered. "Oh shut up Ron, I'm getting to a part you should be interested in." Ron was confused but didn't say anything. "So when he left Fred and George started disguising me. Then Mrs. Weasley came in and Fred went to distract her. Then you" he nodded at Ron "and Ginny came in. While you were talking, George had turned me into Midge Moland the Midget." He looked over at Ron, who was blushing furiously.
"What's wrong Ron?" Hermione asked.
"Nothing," he mumbled. Harry grinned.
"In a nutshell, Midge reminded them of me," Harry explained to Hermione, "and Ron stormed out."
"Why?" Hermione was confused. Ron blushed even more when Harry said,
"Yes tell her Ronnykins."
"Oh shut up and get on with the story," Ron said to the other man. Hermione looked at them and sighed.
"Whatever, I don't care. Keep going Harry."
"So then everyone else figured out who I am, and Fred and George took me to America for two years. I became the seeker for the American team and bought them the apartment we were renting. Then we came back and I became Harry Potter again, and I got assigned this case and you know the rest up to the point where I left the Three Broomsticks. You want to know what happened?" they nodded. "I was walking down the street to clear my head, when someone started yelling 'Look its Harry Potter!' and they grabbed my broom and tossed it inside the quidditch store. So there was a huge crowd around me, and I couldn't get out so I stunned the people in front of me when they wouldn't go away, and they knocked down people behind me until I had a path. You probably saw Maria Skeeter attack me," they nodded again. "And I guess you found my broom in the quidditch store, since you threw it down to me. And that's the whole story." Ron grinned.
"Yeah we saw that stunning spell, and let me tell you, it was pretty powerful." Hermione agreed and then they all sat just thinking. Then Hermione burst into tears and threw her arms around Harry.
"I'm so sorry!" she cried. "I can't believe we were mad at you, while you were going through that!" Ron noticed Harry looked amused.
"What's so funny?" he asked his friend.
"It's just Mrs. Weasley reacted the same way as Hermione." Ron laughed.
"I can imagine." Hermione pulled away from Harry, and looked at him and Ron.
"We're friends again, right?"
"Of course," they both said at the same time. Laughing, they all lay down on their backs, and looked up at the starry sky. They watched the sky for a while before Hermione suddenly startled the men by shouting out.
"Hey!" she sat up and glared at Harry. He looked back.
"What?"
"When you sent us the letter that said we would be able to use the Hogwarts library without interruptions because nobody normal goes to a library on a Saturday, you were making fun of me! You knew who I was because of the thing at the Ministry." Harry grinned but didn't say anything. Suddenly she jumped on him and sat on him, pinning him down. "Apologize, please." She said curtly. He could have easily thrown her off, and was about to do so, when Ron came and sat down next to Hermione, pretending not to notice he was sitting on Harry. Since Ron weighed a lot more than Hermione, he knocked the wind out of Harry when he sat on him.
"So how are you Hermione?" Ron asked as if they were sitting on a bench in the park.
"Splendid, thank you, how are you?" Hermione replied. Harry was struggling beneath them.
"Guys, you're crushing me. Ron! You're about to break my ribs! I can't breathe, I can't- I can't…" he trailed off gasping for breath but then he became limp. Hermione jumped up.
"Oh my God! We've killed him! Get off, why are you still sitting on him?"
"Because, Hermione, he's pretending just so we'll get off him." She fixed him with a death glare.
"Oh yeah? Do you feel him breathing beneath you?"
"Um, no," Ron said uncertainly then jumped to his feet. "Oh my God! We really did kill him!"
"What do we do?"
"I'll check for a pulse, maybe he's alive," Ron said as he began walking towards Harry. Right when he was kneeling down, Harry jumped up, and ran away from them, stopping only when he was a safe distance away. "Harry you idiot! You scared us to death! Not to mention the fact that I almost had a heart attack when you jumped up like that!" Ron yelled.
"Ah well whatcha gonna do?" Harry yelled back.
"I'm going to kill you for real this time!"
"Oh no, I'm so scared please don't Ron," Harry said in a high voice. Ron started chasing him, but he was too far away. Hermione looked at them running and rolled her eyes. Lying back down, she listened to the sound of the waterfall, and the two men's shouts, and soon she was fast asleep.
When Ron and Harry finally stopped running, they went back to Hermione and noticed she was sound asleep. They lay down, once again, and started talking about their years at Hogwarts. Soon Hermione woke up, scolded them for making enough noise not to let her sleep, and joined in their conversation.
Since none of them had their watches on, they didn't know what time it was, but after three hours of talking, they all went to sleep.
In her sleep, Hermione pulled her blanket farther up, near her neck because it had gotten so cold. The blanket was not helping, so she woke up, not able to sleep any longer in such weather. She sat up angrily, and looked around, as if trying to find someone to blame for the cold. She saw Harry and Ron both stirring beside her trying to get away from the ice that was forming on them. Both of them woke up at the same time and saw Hermione looking at them.
"What's going on?" Ron asked groggily, rubbing his arms.
"I don't know, I woke up because it was so cold and my blanket wasn't helping. I wonder what's wrong with the weather; it shouldn't be freezing, it's the middle of July!" Harry suddenly sat bolt upright and started staring fiercely into the trees. Ron and Hermione looked too, but didn't see anything.
"What's there Harry?" Ron asked. He was more awake now and sitting up. Harry didn't answer; instead he scrambled to his feet, and pulled out his wand.
"Stand up," he said quietly.
"Why?" Ron asked.
"STAND UP!" Harry bellowed. Hermione and Ron got to their feet quickly and also took out their wands. They were all standing in a triangle, back to back, each facing a different direction. Next to them were the blankets and their brooms.
"Harry, what is it?" Hermione asked desperately.
"Think happy thoughts." Was all he said. Immediately his friends understood. They raised their wands, getting ready to say the spell, and remembering all their happiest memories.
Soon the first dementor came. It swooped down on Hermione and she yelled.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Her otter patronus emerged from her wand and chased the dementor away. But more came. Soon there were about five dementors: one on Ron, one on Hermione, and three on Harry. It was as if they knew he had the best patronus of the three of them.
Ron was having trouble with his patronus, but at the last moment the silver bear came out of his wand.
Since they were getting rid of so many dementors so fast, all three friends were tiring quickly. Ron was doing very well, but since he was the least experienced with the charm, his bear was becoming less and less visible until it was just a think wisp of silvery smoke. A dementor floated up to him and started sucking his soul, but Hermione got rid of it. Once it was gone, Ron collapsed in a heap. Now Harry and Hermione had double the work, but they were weakening fast. The dementors kept on coming.
It seemed like all was lost when Harry's patronus stopped coming out of his wand. Hermione had two dementors on her, to keep her at bay while their companions finished Harry. They didn't even seem to sense Ron anymore.
The young woman was backing up and shooting her patronus at the dementors around Harry, but she was so weak, it couldn't reach them, so she got rid of her dementors instead. She realized Harry and the dementors surrounding him were in front of her, behind her dementors. She was deciding what to do when Ron woke up. He jumped to his feet, and shot his patronus at Harry's dementors. They backed off, slightly and Hermione and Ron saw Harry. He was sitting on the ground, his head in between his knees, with his wand on held loosely in his hand. He was hearing his mom and dad's death, and that cruel and shrill laugh, but he had to bear it to save himself, and his friends; he had to restore his energy. Of course, Ron and Hermione didn't know that.
"Ron, what are we going to do?" Hermione asked frantically, backing away from the dementors in front of her. She got rid of them and thought of what Ron had done. How he had basically saved Harry's life, or at least bought them a moment or two to figure something out.
"I don't know Hermione." Before he fell down unconscious again, he shot the charm past Hermione, and looking over her shoulder, she noticed the bear chasing the dementor that had been floating behind her away. She looked back at Ron but he was on the ground. Hermione had no idea of what to do. She was incredibly scared that this was the end for all of them. She looked towards Harry again. Through a small gap between the dementors she saw that there were so many crowded around him with their hoods down that he couldn't even move if he wanted to. Hermione suddenly realized she had no idea if he was conscious or even alive.
She knew their only hope was Harry casting his patronus but if he was conscious, he needed room to get up and for that the dementors needed to be distracted. She had to get over there somehow, but there was a dementor blocking her. What Hermione had to do suddenly hit her. She understood it was mostly likely suicidal, but it was the only chance they had. She took a deep breath, held it and stepped through the dementor.
Immediately she felt cold. It was the coldest she'd ever been in her life, and she shut her eyes against it.
There was nothing inside her, no emotion except sadness. It felt like her heart had shriveled up and stopped beating, yet she lived on. Then there was nothing. The freezing feeling was gone, and the cold that met her instead, felt like warm sunshine. She opened her eyes, and found herself on the other side of the dementor. She looked back, and saw the dementor dissolve.
She remembered why she had walked through the horrid thing, and looked at the mass of dementors in front of her. As she had hoped, they had backed away from Harry, distracted by Hermione. The man still didn't move though. Hermione felt her heart sink. There was no hope. Harry was dead or unconscious, and she herself was barely alive or on the verge of unconsciousness, she didn't know which. She sank down onto her knees and looked at the sky. The sun was still there, and it blinded her eyes so she looked away. The woman looked everywhere except the mob of dementors and Harry. She turned her head to look at Ron, but a sudden movement caught her eye. Glancing over to where she had seen the movement, she saw Harry standing up his wand in hand.
She watched as he screamed the charm, and the stag erupted from his wand and chased the crowd of dementors away.
Then Harry stumbled up to her. He took her hand, and helped her stand up. She was swaying on her feet, and barely able to walk as they went over to Ron. The last thing she remembered was Harry pulling them weakly over to the brooms. Then blackness swallowed her up.