Los Noteanos: Can you tell I don't speak Spanish?

For anyone who is reading my other story, The Fairy Princess, sorry for not updating in a while. I want to finish this one first.

To whomever the word 'duh' may have disturbed: They were mocking each other, so something stupid is bound to come out.

On the Gryffindor horcrux: I had no idea what it could be. Educated guess...

----------------------------------------------------------------

Harry leaned back onto his bed. Four days later, and it was still snowing. People all across Western Europe were getting snowed in. Businesses were closed, school canceled – in fact, Hogwarts itself was making the students stay at home for a few extra days, so that they could clear the tracks for the train to get through.

The three of them were still stuck in Grimmauld Place. Mrs. Weasley insisted on them coming to dinner every night (Harry guessed the change of heart was only because of Ron), but Harry rarely ever went. He wasn't going to involve any of the family in his problems anymore. If Ron still wanted to come, then there was no way Harry could stop him – but he could save the rest of the family.

This was one of those nights when he didn't go along. He lied in the bed, looking at his picture of Ginny. Ron and Hermione didn't usually stay for a long time after dinner, though. They would be back any second… Right on cue, Harry heard someone clunking up the stairs. Ron came quickly into the room. Harry hid the picture in his hand.

"Guess what?" Ron said, joining him on the bed.

"What?"

"I'm going to be an uncle."

"Really?"

"Yep. Fleur is pregnant."

Harry snorted. "Well that didn't take too long."

"Ginny's really excited about it." Ron mumbled, trying to change the subject. "You should have come along tonight. She asked about you."

"Really?" Harry asked, squeezing the picture a bit and starting to get excited. Ron nodded. "What'd she say?"

"Just wanted to know how you were. If you were taking care of yourself and all that."

"Oh, I see. What'd you tell her?"

"That you were still alive, and too busy to come to dinner."

"That's it?"

"Yeah. So I uhh -heard that you two were alone for a night?"

"Christmas Eve, yeah." Ron raised an eyebrow." Nothing happened."

"Right..." Harry rolled his eyes.

"Ron..."

"Whatever you say Harry." He spotted the picture of Ginny in Harry's hand. "You must miss her."

"More than anything else in this world."

"Then why didn't you come to dinner? Why don't you let her help?"

"I'm not getting her involved in this. Going to see her every day would just make it harder to leave her again. If anything happened to her... I don't think I could live knowing that it was my fault."

"She wants to be with you, and you want to be with her. Why don't you -"

"You wouldn't understand it Ron." Harry said. "You don't know what it's like. I love her more than anything else in this world, and I'll be damned if I let her get hurt because of me."

Ron acted as if he were going to say something, but then changed his mind. He got up and left the room. A few minutes later, Harry got up as well and went downstairs, entering right into the middle of an arguing match.

"Ronald, sometimes you -" Hermione was saying.

"Sometimes I what?"

Hermione sighed. "Nothing." They were going to continue with the argument, but they stopped when Harry entered the room. They had agreed the night before not to argue as much, at least not around Harry, after Harry had hexed them both for arguing for three hours straight.

"Is it still snowing?" Harry asked to break the silence.

"Yeah. Pretty soon we won't be able to see out the windows." Ron said. Harry looked out the kitchen window. He was right. "At this rate, the kids at Hogwarts are going to be stuck at home until August." Something in Harry perked up for a second, but he ignored it.

"We need to get on with the shield. D'you think anything in the London library would help?"

"I doubt it." Hermione said. "When we were there before I didn't see much. I know that the Hogwarts library has a lot on Gryffindor, but -"

"McGonagall stays there during Christmas break, doesn't she?"

"Yeah, but Harry -"

"We could floo there."

"Harry, listen - they won't let us in."

"Why not?"

"The only way you can enter Hogwarts is through the gates. All apparation places and floo networks and any other kind of magical transport anywhere near Hogwarts are closed. They aren't taking any chances after last year."

Harry sighed. Great, he thought. So now what? We can't even get outside to apparate, and most floo networks are closed... "Then I guess the only option we have is the library in London."

"I already -"

"Yes, I heard you. But we don't have any other options until we can get someone back in Hogwarts to look for us. At least it will get us out of the house. Is Diagon Alley open still?"

"It should be." Ron said. "Fred and George just went back yesterday. Some stores might be closed because of the snow, though. But the library's not in Diagon Alley..."

"So Fred and George are open? We can floo to their store, right?"

"I guess."

"Then let's go." Harry said, heading upstairs to grab his winter cloak.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"Awful weather, isn't it?" Fred asked, once the three of them had appeared into the store.

"No customers." George said, shaking his head. "It's a shame. All those children without anything to prank with..."

"So what brings the dynamic trio here on this very empty day?" Fred asked. "Run out of things to torture each other with?"

"We need to get to London, but we couldn't get outside to apparate." Harry explained.

"What's so important?" Fred asked, but he was never answered. Harry walked outside quickly, and Ron and Hermione followed. A bitter blast of icy cold wind hit Harry in the face. It was still snowing. Harry pulled the collar of his cloak up and continued to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Let's stop for a second." Ron said. "To get back the feeling in our bodies." Harry didn't want to stop, but he knew Ron was right. Although the walk had been short, he felt as if he had been in the snow for days. The three of them sat at the table nearest to the fire. Tom, the innkeeper, offered them a drink. Harry refused but Ron and Hermione each got one.

As they warmed themselves by the fire, Harry looked around. There were only four other customers: a mother and two children, stranded in the storm, and a hooded figure in the corner. Harry felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. The person in the corner made him extremely uncomfortable.

"We shouldn't stay for too long." Harry whispered to the other two, motioning with his head to the corner. They nodded. Harry wondered who that was. Would a death eater be in Diagon Alley? He decided to find out.

Harry got up and headed for the stairs, glancing at the hooded figure on his way past. The hooded figure glanced back at Harry, and Harry saw a wisp of blond hair fall out of the hood. Harry almost laughed. He went to the figure and sat down across from him.

"Malfoy." He said casually, as if he were talking to Ron. The other said nothing. "Great disguise, by the way. Blends in nicely with the wall."

"Shut it." Draco snapped. "What do you want?"

"Nothing. For a second I thought you were a threat, but now that I can see who you are..."

"If we weren't in public I'd kill you."

"Sure." Harry said. "Join the club."

"I shouldn't be talking to you anyway. You'll go back to that school and tell all your auror protectors."

"Number one: I didn't go back to school. And number two: I don't need aurors to protect me."

Draco snorted. "Figures you'd drop out."

"You're one to talk. You and your best buddy Severus ran back home to master... like two lost puppies..."

"Don't even try to pretend that you know what's happened between myself and the Dark Lord." Draco said heatedly.

"I don't have to pretend. I heard you say it all yourself. I was there when you tried to kill -"

Draco sighed. "This once again proves that Gryffindors are all perpetual eavesdroppers."

"Slytherins aren't much better, but you're getting off the subject."

"There never was a subject."

"I know you didn't want to kill him."

"I'm leaving before you overhear anything else. If you even try to turn me in, then I'll -"

"If I were going to turn you in, don't you think I would have done it by now?" Draco glared at him and walked quickly outside.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It was Malfoy? Really?" Ron asked, after Harry had told them what had happened. The three of them had moved to the library, nearly freezing their feet off in the process.

"Yep." Harry said, reaching up to grab a book for Hermione, who was too short to reach it.

"Do you think it was a good idea to tell him that you aren't in school? I mean, he could go back and tell You-Know-Who."

"I'm no safer there than anywhere else. Plus that makes it harder for him to find me if I'm not where he expected me to be."

"Wonder why he's out by himself." Hermione mumbled as she scanned a book. "D'you think he's stationed in Diagon Alley?"

"After he messed up on killing Dumbledore, I'd bet Voldemort isn't very happy with him." Harry said, also scanning a book. "He's probably on the run."

"They killed his mum." Ron said.

"What?" Hermione said, ripping her eyes away from the book.

"It was in the Prophet a few weeks ago. The Ministry found her dead in the Thames."

"That's horrible!"

"That's the way it is with Voldie." Harry said. "Betray him and someone dies. Usually someone very close to you - tortures you more - more fun for him. Hence why I didn't want anyone coming along with me." The other two nodded, seeming to understand him for the first time.

"So, is he against You-Know-Who now?" Ron asked.

"Once you're on the dark side, it's hard to go back. Remember RAB? Died trying to go against Voldemort." Harry said, reaching for another book. "Find anything yet?"

"No, nothing on Gryffindor." Hermione said, reaching for another book. "He has to be in one of these. Good thing this library has all the biographies on important wizards."

"Hey, Harry! Here's one on you." Ron said, pointing to a top shelf. Harry went over to look. A small red book was on the end of the shelf. " 'The Boy Who Lived.' Sounds exciting."

"If this wasn't a library I'd throw that away." Harry said, going back to the G's. "If I make it through all this, I'm writing my own biography. Then everyone can have their facts straight."

"Then it would be an autobiography." Hermione corrected.

"Thank you Miss Correctness." Ron mumbled. Hermione was about to argue back, when -

"Found something!" Harry said, stooping down to get a book off the bottom shelf. "A lot of somethings, actually. "Half of the shelf was on Gryffindor. He handed them up to Ron, who set them on the table with the others.

"Twelve." Hermione counted. "We could be here for a while."

"Not like we have anything else to do." Ron said, sitting at the table and taking a book. "So what exactly are we looking for?"

"To see if Gryffindor had a shield in the first place." Harry said, also taking a book. "Or anything else that could be a horcrux."

After two hours of reading, nothing had come up. Ron was falling asleep on the table. "This is useless." Hermione said, closing her book and hitting Ron over the head with it. "We should go before the library closes." Harry helped her put the books back, a few of which she 'accidentally' dropped on Ron so that he'd stay awake. Then the three of them sauntered back toward Diagon Alley. It was still snowing. The snow had built up so much that a mountain of it fell on them when they opened the brick wall.

"It's the yeti!" George said when a very snowy Ron entered the shop. "Quick, Fred! The yeti repellant!"

"Shut it." Ron said, throwing snow at them.

"Watch yourself." Fred said. "You're getting everything wet."

"And some things aren't so nice when they're wet." George said. "Like cats, for example."

"Didn't find anything?" George said, switching the open sign with one that said closed.

"Nothing useful." Harry said, heading for the fireplace. "As usual."

"You'll never guess who we saw." George said.

"Who?"

"Draco Malfoy."

"Did he come in here?" Hermione asked.

"No, but we were watching it snow - wanted to try out something new -and we saw him walking toward Knockturn Alley. The wind blew his hood back." Harry listened more closely. The last time he had gone to Knockturn Alley...

"How long ago did you see him?" Harry asked.

"Not too long ago. Why?"

"Harry, he's probably gone by now." Hermione said, but Harry headed for the door.