Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Ron slowly opened his eyes, only to shut them immediately. The place he was in was full of light. The walls were white, the lamps lit even though outside it was daylight.

He opened his eyes again, shielding them with his hand, and sat up. The first thing he noticed was he was on something soft. He lay back again for a second and felt something as nice as a cloud under his head. He realized he must be on a bed somewhere. He sat up again, still shielding his eyes. Once he was used to the brightness, he took away his hand and looked around. As was said before the walls were all white, making it seem to Ron that he would go crazy any minute if he didn't find something that wasn't that color. He looked at his bedside table on his right, and saw a bouquet of blue flowers. Next to the vase was a lamp that was lit, but it really made no difference. Outside the sun was shining, and the sky was a clear blue with no clouds.

The young man saw there were blue curtains, arranged in a semi-circle as if surrounding something to his left. There were more curtains, arranged in exactly the same way to his right. He was starting to wonder where he was exactly, and what was behind the curtains, when the curtains on his left started shaking slightly. He instinctively reached for his wand, but it wasn't there. He looked down and saw he wasn't in normal robes. They were hospital robes!

"Ron?" came a voice on the left side of the room. He looked over and saw a brown haired head sticking out of the curtains.

"Hermione!"

"Do you know where we are?" she asked looking around. Then she winced and put her hands to her eyes. "Ugh why is it so bright?"

"It's just the walls. Anyway I think we're in a hospital. Look at your robes." She glanced down. She was wearing hospital robes just like Ron's.

"Oh. Do you know what we're doing here and what happened yesterday?"

"No, I'm having recollections of being near some waterfall or something."

"Yeah, me too." Hermione looked over his shoulder. "Who's behind those curtains?"

"I don't know. I'm starving though. I hope they serve food here, Ron said.

"Why don't you just go look for some then?" Hermione asked.

"Good idea." He swung his legs over the side of his bed and stood up. Or at least he tried to. The minute he wasn't being supported by the bed anymore, he fell to the ground as if his legs were made of rubber.

"Ron! You ok?" Hermione asked. She tried to stand up too, in order to get to her friend but even before she let go of her support, her legs gave way, and she was hanging on to the bed.

Somehow she managed to get back into her bed and satisfied herself with trying to see Ron by looking over his.

"Yes but why won't my legs work?" he said, hoisting himself up unto the hospital cot.

"I don't know. The only reason I can come up with is if we were under a lot of stress and/or doing something that really weakened us. But I can't remember anything like that, can you?"

"No, all I remember is the waterfall and talking about Hogwarts with you and Harry-" he stopped short. "Harry! I wonder where he is."

"Me too, I hope he's ok."

"Yeah," Ron agreed. They talked for a bit longer until a door in the corner of the room opened. A plump lady with auburn hair piled in a bun on top of her head, came in carrying two trays of food. Her robes where white just like the walls in Ron and Hermione's room, and she looked to be about thirty-five.

"Hello dears. I see you're finally awake," she said cheerfully. Hermione began to panic.

"What do you mean finally? What time is it?" The woman (she was a medi-witch) smiled in amusement.

"It's 11:00 a.m."

Ron was confused.

"So then why did you say we were 'finally awake'?" he asked.

"Well it's July 29th. You've been unconscious for three weeks." They gaped at her.

"W-what?" Ron spluttered.

"How?" Hermione said at the same time.

"Well, I suppose I can tell you. Friday morning, three weeks ago, a man carrying four brooms, and supporting two unconscious people Apparated into our Apparation room."

"Apparation room?" Hermione asked, confused.

"It's the only place someone can Apparate here so they don't Apparate in the way of someone on a stretcher or something."

"Oh. Where are we anyway?" The medi-witch chuckled.

"You're at St. Mungo's. Now on with the story. The man who Apparated into the building was barely conscious himself; in fact he collapsed as soon as he got here. You two were the people he was supporting, and you were all put in this room. You've been out cold for three weeks."

"But do you know what happened to us?" Ron asked impatiently.

"Yes we do, by doing something we only do in case of an emergency"

"What's that?" Hermione asked eagerly.

"We went into your memories." Hermione gasped. Ron knew it was a very dangerous thing to do, but he decided not to ask questions about that. Instead he wanted to know about what happened to them.

"And what did you find?" he inquired.

"Well it appears you were attacked by many, many dementors and Mr. Weasley" she nodded at Ron "passed out first, him being the least experienced in the area of patronuses." The man blushed. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, as it's a very complicated charm." The witch reassured him. "Anyways, Ms. Granger and your companion, Mr. Potter," Ron opened his mouth but Hermione told him to shut it and wait, "were left with double the work. For a while Ms. Granger didn't know if he was conscious or alive. She began weakening fast and saw he was slumped on the ground with dementors crowding around him. Then Mr. Weasley woke up and helped her out a bit, but then lost consciousness once again."

"Wow." Ron said. "Keep going!"

"You can call us Hermione, Ron, and Harry instead of Mr. Potter, by the way," Hermione informed the other woman.

"All right, so Hermione noticed that if Harry was alive and conscious, he needed room to get up and for that the dementors needed to be distracted. So Hermione walked through the dementor in front of her." Hermione stared at the medi-witch.

"What?" she said unbelievingly. "I would never be able to do that."

"Well you did, and the dementor dissolved. The other dementors got distracted and backed away from Harry a bit, and he stood up and got rid of them. When we looked into his memory we found that he was regaining his energy and strength while he was sitting there. It still amazes us that he didn't lose consciousness sitting there listening to the screams of his parents and..." her voice broke and Ron shuddered, thinking about what Harry must have had to go through. Hermione patted the older woman on the back, calming her down.

"It's ok," Hermione said soothingly. "What happened next?" The medi- witch pulled herself together, and continued.

"He got you two and Apparated with the brooms to the hospital. Somewhere between the time when he got you and came here, you passed out Hermione."

"Oh, I see," Hermione said quietly. "Thanks for telling us."

"Your welcome."

"How's Harry?" Ron suddenly burst out. "Will he be ok? Is he asleep or unconscious? He's behind those curtains, isn't he?"

"He's fine, he'll most likely be ok, he is unconscious still, and yes he's behind the curtains. But don't worry about him; it takes more than dementors to kill Harry Potter." Hermione and Ron nodded, grinning knowingly.

"Can we see him?" Hermione asked.

"For the moment you can't even walk, Ms. Granger."

"Right, about that, how come we can't stand up?" Ron said.

"It took all your strength to save yourselves, and you are still very weak. In about a week, two at most, you'll be up and running again."

"And Harry? How soon do you think he'll wake up?" Hermione asked frantically.

"We don't know, we just don't know," said the witch sadly shaking her head. "You know food helps rebuild your strength." They just looked at her. "Hint, hint." She added. Then they smelled the food and made grabs for it. The medi-witch got up from the chair she had sat down in during the story, and made to leave. But suddenly Hermione cried,

"Wait! How come we don't remember any of this?"

"We gave you a temporary memory potion, so that you wouldn't have any dreams about this, or any unpleasant memories until you were ready to face it again," she answered and left.

"I hope Harry's going to be ok," said Hermione worriedly, picking at her food.

"Hermione, you heard what the Barbara said; it takes more than dementors to kill Harry."

"Barbara?

"Yeah she had a name tag."

"Oh." Hermione did look slightly better at that thought (the one about Harry being fine not about the name tag) and started eating again.

The next day the two friends got their memories back. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but it was still better than being almost completely clueless about what happened.

They also started trying to walk again. They were regaining strength fast, with the help of various potions.

A week after they both woke up, they were walking around the hospital, almost as easily as they always had. When they got back to their room, they smelled food, and heard someone eating furiously. The smell and sound came from Harry's sound of the room. Ron and Hermione looked at each other excitedly and ran over to the curtains. Wrenching them open, they saw a very pale Harry, stuffing food in his mouth, not even looking at what he was eating.

Since he didn't seem to notice them, Ron cleared his throat. The other man looked up at him, startled, and then smiled broadly.

"Ron! Hermione!" he shouted.

"Harry! Are you ok?" they both asked in unison. They all laughed briefly, and then Harry said,

"Well I can't walk, I can barely lift my arms" they noticed for the first time, how close he was leaning to the plate. "And I can't remember what happened, what was it, four weeks ago? Other than that I'm fine."

"Oh," said Hermione quietly.

"You look like you're having trouble there Harry," Ron sniggered. "You don't need the plate any closer do you?" Harry glared at him.

"Oh shut up, you should have seen me try and lift my fork today. It felt like it weighed one hundred pounds." Ron grinned, and Hermione smiled.

"You should have seen us try and walk," she said. Harry laughed.

"I can imagine. I bet it couldn't have been harder than it was for me. I didn't even have the use of my arms, so I couldn't get up until a medi-witch came to help me." His friends howled with laughter, thinking about how Harry would look rolling around on the ground trying to get up, not able to use his arms or legs. "You know, you're supposed to be my friends," said Harry pretending to pout. They were about to reply when there came a shout.

"Mr. Potter! I thought I told you to finish eating and try to sleep right after! You need all the rest you can get, and you still haven't finished your food!" Another medi-witch, named Alison, rushed up to them. She was in her late twenty's with black hair tied back in a ponytail. She pushed Hermione and Ron out of the way, and before Harry could stop her she began to force feed him. That made his two friends start laughing again.

Once she was done feeding Harry, she made him lie down, and said she was going to get a sleep potion. Once she was gone Harry said,

"I swear, sometimes I wonder if this really is a hospital and not a maximum security prison." Ron was confused, and Hermione started giggling now thinking about Harry, as an oversized baby, rolling around on the ground, being force fed, in a maximum security prison.

"What?"

"A muggle prison which is heavily guarded," Hermione told him through giggles.

"Oh," he said and started laughing again, apparently thinking about the same thing as Hermione.

"What's the matter with you guys?" Harry asked.

"Nothing," Hermione said, calming down. He looked at her skeptically, but didn't say anything else.

When Alison came back she made them leave, and gave Harry the potion. Soon he was fast asleep.

There were no curtains around Hermione and Harry's beds now, which allowed the three friends to talk to each other. Well it would have if Harry had been awake, but it at least allowed two of the friends to talk.

It was while they were discussing how glad they were that Harry was ok, and how much work they'd have to be doing soon that they heard the moaning. At first it was soft and quiet; they could barely hear it. Then it grew louder, but Hermione and Ron couldn't tell where it was coming from. Suddenly they heard the moan become words.

"No don't...don't go near it, it's not good, no, no stop! No!" They realized it was coming from Harry's bed. The witch and wizard jumped out of their own beds, and rushed towards Harry's. Now he was mumbling quietly. "It's my fault, all my fault, so stupid, all my fault." Then he suddenly started screaming. "NO DON'T! PLEASE DON'T DO IT, HE DOESN'T DESERVE IT! NO STOP!" he began shaking violently, and sweat appeared on his forehead. Hermione and Ron could hear footsteps hurrying towards their room. Harry burst out again. "NO, NO, NO IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU STARTED IT ALL!" His friends exchanged worried looks. They didn't dare do anything. "No don't do it, it won't help. It ruins everything," Harry continued. Four medi-witches burst into the room at that moment, and stood there with their wands raised. Seeing there was no danger, they lowered them, and came to stand next to Hermione and Ron.

"What's going on?" Barbara asked.

"He began moaning and screaming in his sleep, and then sweating. We were afraid to do anything," Hermione explained.

"We're going to have to wake him and give him the dreamless sleep draught right after. Alison, go get it please," said Barbara and Alison left the room. Then Harry started it again.

"It's my fault, why did it happen? Stupid, stupid it's my fault. WHY DID SHE HAVE TO KILL HIM? WHY SI-" Suddenly he sat bolt upright, opening his eyes. Harry looked around.

"Harry?" Hermione asked timidly.

"What's going on?" he asked, his voice shaking, his face pale. Hermione looked at Ron.

"You started talking in your sleep, then screaming," Ron said.

"What did I say?"

"Something about how it's your fault, then you seemed to be talking to someone, saying it'll ruin it all and not to do it. You were also telling someone not to go near something." Harry looked stricken.

"And the last thing you said was 'why did she have to kill him?' then something like 'why si'. It didn't really make any sense," Hermione added.

"Oh., Harry said. Then Barbara started speaking.

"We're going to give you a dreamless sleep draught; Alison's getting it. She'll be back soon." Harry nodded, and settled back in his bed.

Alison came back in a minute or two, and seeing Harry was awake, filled a cup with the liquid from the vial she was carrying. She handed him the potion and waited for him to drink. Before he could, Ron asked,

"What were you dreaming of Harry?"

"Oh, nothing really," he answered, too calmly for anyone to believe him, and drained the cup. Before it took effect, he thought 'I'm never going to let them know I still dream about my parents' and Sirius' death. Not ever.' Then he fell into an unconscious slumber.

The next morning found Hermione and Ron trying to figure out what Harry could have been dreaming about. Well, more like Ron constantly asking Hermione.

"Hermione," he began for the third time. "What do you think he was dreaming about?"

"Ron, I already told you, I don't know!" she exclaimed exasperatedly. "None of what he was saying really made sense. It was probably just a nightmare, nothing from real life."

"I guess you're right," Ron said, "but do you think we can ask him about it?"

"Ron, asking him about it won't help. Last night he didn't want to tell us, so why do you think this morning will be any better?"

"I know, I know, but still, isn't it worth a try?"

"No! It won't work, and I don't think Harry will want to relive it if it was as bad as it sounded."

"Yeah," said Ron in a defeated voice. "Maybe it wasn't so bad though."

"It was," said a quiet voice on his right. Ron jumped.

"Harry! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"I didn't, you're sitting next to my bed," Harry pointed out. Ron blushed a little.

"Oh, right. Anyway do you think you can tell us what it was about?" he asked trying to change the subject. Hermione glared at him.

"Ron-" she began but Harry interrupted her.

"No, it's ok."

"Are you sure Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he answered, and Hermione felt satisfied enough to lean closer, along with Ron, to listen to what Harry had to say. He didn't say anything however; he seemed to be in a trance.

"Harry?" Ron said, snapping his fingers in front of Harry's face. It didn't work, and Harry's eyes became clouded. Hermione grabbed his arm, and he turned to look at her. His expression shocked her and she dropped his arm. It was a look of pure hatred, like he wanted to harm her, and it made him look dangerous. A gasp from Ron told her he had seen it as well. Neither of them said anything, and Hermione quickly conjured a glass of water (she had her wand with her) and dumped it on Harry in a panic. The man's eyes unfogged immediately and he reached up weakly and touched his scar. In a moment he looked at them, and they could see the fear in his eyes.

Harry woke up to the sound of his friends arguing about what his dream had been, and whether or not they should ask him about it. He heard Ron say that maybe the nightmare wasn't as bad as they thought. Harry answered his friend.

"It was." Ron jumped.

"Harry! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"I didn't, you're sitting next to my bed" Harry said and he noticed Ron blush a little.

"Oh, right. Anyway do you think you can tell us what it was about?" Ron asked, obviously trying to change the subject. Hermione started to scold him, but Harry said it was ok and Ron and Hermione leaned closer.

He was about to start, when there was a white hot pain in his forehead. He couldn't touch it; he was too weak from what happened four weeks ago combined with the pain. He felt Hermione grab his arm, and he turned his eyes towards her. He hated her; he wanted to hurt her, to make her suffer. She let go of him quickly, but he still felt the undeniable hatred, the urge to kill. He glanced away, and felt something cold on him. Instantly the feeling vanished, and the pain went away though his scar was still throbbing slightly.

He found strength to touch it, and the throbbing slowly stopped. Harry was terrified; he had only felt that in his fifth year when Voldemort had possessed him. Could he be doing it again? Ron's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Harry? Are you ok?" he asked timidly. He sounded scared and Harry knew he was scared of him.

"I'm fine," he answered quietly.

"What happened Harry? You know, I know you do," Hermione said.

"It felt like in fifth year; as if Voldemort was possessing me. But there's no way he could be because he had no idea I'm here. A healer told me yesterday, before you guys came in." Ron and Hermione looked worried. "Let's pretend it didn't happen, at least not until I get my memory back or we're working again or something," Harry offered.

"I guess so," Hermione said. "But we'll go to Dumbledore if it happens again, agreed?"

"Agreed!" Both her friends answered.

"So Harry," Ron said. "You owe us a dream explanation." Harry grew a little paler, but Ron waved it aside, thinking it was just the after affects of what just happened.

"Ok, I was dreaming that Voldemort was here, at St. Mungo's. He was heading to our ward, killing everybody on the way. He finally got here, and some Death Eaters were with him. Ron had been going to the door to see what was going on (which was why I said don't go near it) and when they came in a Death Eater grabbed him and killed him. Then I woke up." They sat in silence. Harry had made it all up as he went along, and his friends knew that but they also knew that since he was lying about it, he didn't want to tell them.

"Oh," Ron said. Then Hermione said,

"Oh no, my apartment's going to be disgusting when I come back there was a lot of dishes in the sink when we left so there's going to be thousands of flies in there." Suddenly Ron groaned.

"I was supposed to move in to my apartment three weeks ago! They probably sold it to someone else now."

"You can just stay at my place then," Hermione said. "As for the flies, we can fill the apartment with spiders to get them all out," she teased. Harry laughed and Ron scowled.

"Then find yourself a different roommate! No way am I going into an apartment filled with spiders. I had more than enough of them to last me a lifetime in second year."

"I'm only teasing" Hermione told him. "Wait, what happened in second year?"

"Remember Aragog?" Harry asked her.

"Oh yeah, Aragog the harmless, gigantic spider."

Ron shuddered.

"Harry they're giving you your memory back today right?" he asked.

"Yeah I can't wait."

Ron was confused.

"What do you mean you can't wait? It's horrible."

"Well, I don't know what happened, and even if it's horrible I still want it back."

"I guess I know what you mean. Oh look! Barbara's coming with the potion." The medi-witch came over to them smiling and handed Harry the potion.

"Here you go, drink this and in a minute or two you'll remember everything." Harry drank, and his stomach felt awful. Then there were sharp pains in his head. It went on for a bit and suddenly it all stopped enabling Harry to remember the waterfall, the dementors, everything. Ron was right, it was horrible.

Once he had successfully remembered everything, they gave him a strength potion and he started being able to lift things, and walk a little. His first trip through the hallway was with Ron and Hermione, but on the second they told him they couldn't because they had to talk to Barbara and the healers. He sadly made his way through the hall, and feeling tired walked back to the room. When he got inside he was so surprised he almost fell over. The room was decorated in red and gold, which reminded Harry of the Gryffindor common room, and there were balloons everywhere. There was a table with food, and presents on his bed.

"Happy Birthday!" all the assembled people shouted. He smiled when he saw that the healers and medi-witches that took care of him and his two friends were there. He looked around and saw lots of other people there too. Ron and Hermione were there obviously, standing in the middle of the crowd, and next to them were a red-headed woman and a dark brown haired man. Harry recognized the woman to be Ginny Weasley, and he knew the man to be Neville Longbottom. Harry had seen them both when they came to visit him while Ron and Hermione were gone.

Fred and George were there, each grinning broadly, and Harry almost laughed out loud when he saw them taking turns to slip candies on the table, but he didn't want to blow their cover. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were at the party as well.

The last person Harry saw was a man with sandy colored hair, which was mostly grey. Harry smiled again when he realized it was Remus Lupin.

"How did you manage to do all this while I was out in the hall?" he asked Ron and Hermione. "It was basically a five minute walk!" his friends just smiled mysteriously.

"We have our ways, Harry, we have our ways." Hermione said, then started singing, with everyone else joining her right away. "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Harry, happy birthday to you!" Harry grinned. Suddenly Ron shouted,

"Enough with the singing, I'm starving!" and leapt towards the table as everyone laughed. Harry hobbled over to join Ron, and everyone else followed.

Even though it took place in a hospital, it was one of Harry's best birthdays. The cake was huge with twenty-five candles. Hermione had had to explain to almost everybody that there was one for good luck. After the cake was gone, Ron was the first person to eat the candies. His hair instantly turned all the colors of the rainbow. He didn't notice, so he grabbed more sweets, stuffing them into his mouth. His eyes then proceeded to become rainbow colors, then his nose and mouth and tongue, and finally his clothes and skin. By that time everyone was laughing hysterically, and he looked at them.

"What's so funny?" he demanded. Nobody answered him, so he reached out and grabbed a candy, and flung it at Harry who was on the floor laughing. (Everyone thought it was because it was so funny, but actually the strength potion had worn off) The chocolate hit him on his arm.

"Ron hello? I'm the handicapped one here, so it's not fair to throw chocolates at me." But Ron wasn't listening. When he had flung the candy, he had seen his hand, and now he rushed up to a mirror and looked at himself.

"Fred and George! Your stupid candies made me turn into a human rainbow!" he shouted, though he was trying hard not to laugh. It wasn't working though so he gave up.

Finally, everyone had calmed down and Harry had gotten some more strength potion. The party was uneventful for a while before Ginny and Remus decided to liven things up. They walked to the food table and each ate two candies. Everyone was watching them holding their breath, waiting to see what would happen. Nothing did for a while, but then suddenly Ginny and Remus were wearing tango outfits. Then they started to do the tango, but they were both failing miserably. Remus kept stepping on his partner's feet and they both were laughing uncontrollably, along with everyone else. Then Ginny took clam shells off the table, and tried to use them as Castanets. Instead she got her fingers stuck a couple of times, and they were red for a while afterwards.

Remus went over to the table after Ginny's clam disaster, and tried to pull the tablecloth out from under everything, without the dishes and food falling, but everything did end up falling onto the floor, and the dishes crashed.

He went over to Ginny, and they started dancing again, but this time they were tweeting and chirping like birds.

That went on for ten minutes, and they finally returned to normal.

"What were those?" Ginny asked Fred and George.

"Our newest invention. We call them Tweeting Tangos." They explained.

"But what about the other candy we ate?" Remus asked, panting.

"Oh, those were the same as Ron's which is why your hair is rainbow colored."

"Yippee!" Ron yelled and rushed forward. He grabbed Remus with one hand but couldn't get Ginny because he had a mug of butterbeer in his other. He looked at his hand for a moment, and then dropped the mug on the ground, where it crashed, and got hold of Ginny. He dragged his two captives over to the corner, where he proceeded to tell them how great rainbows were.

"I think Ron had too much butterbeer" Harry said.

"He started drinking when Ginny and Remus ate the candies, and we all know he drinks about a mug a minute." Hermione said. Everyone laughed, and Harry conjured up some coffee. He walked shakily over to Ron, and poured it down his throat. It was really strong coffee, so Ron got mostly sober again and shouted,

"Presents!" Harry followed his friend to his bed, where he gratefully lay down. He was handed present, after present. He got five updated quidditch books from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and a new photo album to move his pictures into (his old one was getting ripped) from Hagrid, who had sent it with Hedwig. Hermione gave him lots of pictures from Hogwarts and their adventures, as well as candy, and Ron got him a miniature figure of Midge Moland flying on his Firebolt. Harry laughed and went on to his next present from Fred and George. It was a Lightracer care kit, which was very expensive. The Lightracer was a special broom that needed special twig clippers, or polishers which was why it was so expensive.

"Fred, George, you really didn't have to. I mean this is incredibly expensive!" Harry exclaimed.

"No Harry, you bought us that apartment, you gave us the money to open our shop, and we really thought you deserved this."

"Wow. Thanks so much, you guys. It's amazing," Harry said when he opened the box. He had always meant to get one, but had never managed to get a hold of one. Even after four years of being out on the market, the broom and its care kit had been scarce, and hard to get a hold of.

"Where'd you get it?" Neville asked the twins.

"The quidditch shop in America just got them, and we went there a little while ago," they answered.

Soon Harry finished opening his presents, and after a bit more partying everyone left. The medi-witches helped Hermione, Ron, and Harry clean up and then left, leaving the friends to sleep.

After two weeks, Harry was able to walk normally again and they were all let out of the hospital (Hermione and Ron had insisted on staying with Harry incase he had any more nightmares or trances). Ron found out his apartment had been sold to someone else, and moved in with Hermione, paying half the rent and Harry came back to Hogwarts. Immediately Jesse had pounced on him, demanded an explanation, and dragged him off towards Surrey. After they had finished Harry's appearance ("Look Harry Potter's reappeared again!") they went back to the school where Harry spent the day explaining what happened to him and his friends, to Dumbledore and the teachers and playing quidditch with Hermione and Ron. Actually he was playing with Ron until Hermione said she wanted to learn how and they coached her, making her a chaser. She wasn't too bad either.

The day after that they began working again. After four hours it was noon and they went to the Great Hall for lunch. Of course, all the students hadn't come down yet, or else the three friends wouldn't have dared. After lunch they went back to the library where Hedwig found them and, after nipping Harry and hooting happily, presented the Daily Prophet.

"It's late today." Harry commented and gave Hedwig lots of owl treats before she left.

"Hmm wonder why." Ron said putting down his book. Hermione kept on reading until the two men groaned. She looked at them quizzically and Harry thrust the paper to her. On the front page it said:

Harry Potter has reappeared again!Many people saw him in Surrey, the town where he grew up with his muggle relatives. No one knows where he might be, since he was seen in four different places after each time he disappeared.

"Perfect," said Harry.

"What do you mean perfect?" Hermione asked.

"This is why I even went to those places, so nobody would know where I was, and they wouldn't think I was in Hogwarts."

"But what if they still do?" Ron inquired.

"They won't, because it's the most obvious place so they'll think I wouldn't go, and since they think that, they wouldn't try and look for me here so I can live here. Did that make sense?"

"Sorta," Ron answered and Harry grinned. Hermione had already busied herself in her book again.

After ten more minutes of reading, she threw it down.

"This is hopeless!" she exclaimed, causing Madam Pince to glare at her reprovingly. Hermione lowered her voice. "We're never going to be able to find anything. This is almost impossible."

"The key word in that sentence is almost, Hermione." Ron told her.

"Yeah it's one percent possible" she said crossly.

"Hermione, maybe you should take a break." Harry offered.

"No, no I'm ok. I'll just go find another book. He eyed her skeptically and went back to his reading.

Hermione finally came back with another book, read for five minutes, and put it down. She did the same with the next four books she picked out and after the last one she sighed.

"You're right Harry. I'll just go take a walk to clear my head, and then I'll come back and continue." Harry and Ron nodded and she left.

She walked through the halls, thinking about that day at St. Mungo's when Harry had gone into his trance. After that day it hadn't happened again, and he didn't have anymore nightmares. The young woman couldn't help remembering his eyes, as he looked at her. She shuddered and was knocked off her train of thought when she heard a voice.

"Be careful, you're about to walk right into me!" Hermione looked up and saw that she was standing in front of the entrance to the Gryffindor tower, with the fat lady glaring at her.

"Sorry," she mumbled. Dumbledore had told Hermione, Ron, and Harry the password to all the common rooms, so Hermione decided to go in and look around.

"Fairy dust," she said, and the portrait swung open.

The common room was still the same, and the only difference was the amount of furniture. There were more armchairs and sofas than before and the woman decided there must be more students now. She was about to go look around the dormitories, when she heard people coming down the stairs. Hermione quickly hurried out, and ran back to the library.

When she got back she took the books she had been reading earlier, and put them back on the shelves they belonged in. Then as she was searching for another one, she saw Ron slam a book shut savagely and say,

"All this book has is things about you, Harry. About how you survived the curse and no one else did, and about your parents dying along with every encounter you've had with Voldemort. Well besides the last one." Hermione saw Harry wince slightly at the mention of his parents but he nodded and went back to reading. The young woman stood rooted to the spot. His parents' deaths. It seemed important to her somehow, like they had an important part to play in this case.

It all clicked in her mind when Harry suddenly started screaming in agony, clutching his scar. He fell out of his chair, and Ron rushed up to him. Hermione just stood watching as realization dawned on her. She came out of her trance and ran to Harry and Ron. Madam Pince was already there, and since the library was pretty close to the Great Hall teachers and students flew into the room, after hearing Harry's cries.

Harry felt a liquid on his hand and took it away from his scar to see it had blood on it. Suddenly he could barely see anymore, as the blood flowed into his eyes and pain blinded him. He knew everyone was watching him worriedly, waiting for some hint as to what was happening. The man just started holding on to his head again, and after a while the pain was going away a little bit, and the blood stopped flowing.

Harry wiped the blood out of his eyes, and saw students and teachers, standing above him, with his friends kneeling on the floor beside him. Then he finally managed to speak.

"He's angry," he whispered. Everyone leaned in closer, because they had barely heard him. "He's angry," Harry repeated. There wasn't anybody there that didn't realize who he meant, and the students were beginning to panic and get scared. Harry continued. "He's angrier than ever before."

"Why?" asked Dumbledore sternly; the usual twinkle was gone from his eyes as he eyed the young man with sadness and pity. Pity that he had to go through all this.

"Because," Harry choked out. "Because we survived."