Chapter 62

The morning of the first Hogsmeade visit dawned bright and clear. It would have been a perfect day as far as Ron and Harry were concerned, if not for the frigid wind and the fact that they weren't allowed to go into the village with everyone else. And as if watching their classmates queue up in the Entrance Hall after breakfast wasn't bad enough, the trio spotted Ginny descending the marble staircase just as they mounted it to return to the tower and the boys realized where she was heading.

"Wait a minute," Ron demanded, stepping to the left and trying to block her path before she could scurry past them and join the crowd. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Obviously you know where I'm going," she retorted. "Or you wouldn't have that 'you get away with everything and it's not fair' look plastered across your face. Now kindly step out of my way before you make me late."

"Late for what?" Harry asked without taking the time to think about how it sounded. It was only after the question had been asked and he glanced at Ron, who had narrowed his eyes and was glaring at the students milling around the door suspiciously, that Harry realized they'd both jumped to the same conclusion and that he didn't like it any more than Ron did.

"Don't bother," Hermione said to Ginny. "I'll handle it. You go and... have fun," she said, trying to convey her message without giving too much information away. She had no intentions of telling Ron about his sister's date until she was sure that he wouldn't be able to interfere. "Only remember to be careful," she added, stepping aside so Ginny could continue down the stairs unimpeded.

"Yeah right," the young redhead replied, looking back over her shoulder and rolling her eyes. "As if Bill is going to let me out of his sight long enough for anything to happen."

"Bill?" Ron said, clearly confused. "What's Bill doing in Hogsmeade?"

"Didn't he write you?" his sister replied. "He volunteered to help Tonks and the other teachers with the patrols today, or so he said. More likely than not it was Mum that volunteered him. Guess he didn't bother telling you, since you got out of doing patrols yourself."

"So you're meeting Bill then?" Ron asked, visibly relaxing.

"Hadn't planned on it, no," Ginny replied, glancing at Harry briefly before continuing, "In fact, I plan on dodging him until after my date."

"DATE!" Ron yelled, as his sister disregarded him, shoved her way past the students waiting for their friends at the foot of the stairs, and headed straight for the door, where Filch was waiting to check her name off his list. "WHAT DATE? Since when does Ginny have a date?" he asked, rounding on Hermione, after his sister ducked out the door without answering his question.

"Who's she meeting?" Harry asked.

"And why the hell didn't she ever mention it?" Ron added.

"Gee, I wonder," Hermione said cynically. "Could it be because she knew you'd react just like this?"

"Like what?" Ron barked.

"Just forget it," Hermione said, making her way up the marble staircase again. "It's not a big deal, all right. Just let it..."

"It is too a big deal," Ron insisted as he followed her up the stairs. "If it weren't, you two wouldn't be hiding it, so who is it? Who is she meeting?"

"It's none of your business."

"It is so my business. She's my sister and..."

"What's she doing going into Hogsmeade in the first place?" Harry asked, taking both of his friends by surprise with his resentful tone. "If it's too dangerous for us, she shouldn't be going either. What?" he asked, when both Ron and Hermione stopped bickering and spun around to stare at him.

"You sound like Ron," Hermione said, looking at him curiously.

"Yeah well," he said uncomfortably. "Did you ever think that maybe it's because Ron is right?"

"No," she replied, not buying his excuse. If he really thought Hogsmeade was too dangerous for Ginny, he would have been worried about Parvati too. Of the two of them, she was the more obvious target now that word of their encounter had spread through the school, and yet he hadn't said anything when she left with Lavender. Besides, Bill was going to watch Ginny like a hawk. Anyone that wanted to get to her was going to have to go through him, and probably Tonks as well, in order to do it.

"Well, I am," Ron said. "See, even Harry agrees."

"That doesn't change anything," Hermione stated.

"Yeah it does," Ron disagreed. "It makes it two against one and that means we're right."

"No," she corrected, "it makes it two against two and you're still wrong. David is a perfectly nice boy and..."

"David?" Harry said to himself, tallying all the blokes with that name up in his head trying to figure out which one it was. "David who?"

"Devane?" Ron growled at nearly the same instant, zeroing in on the David that Ginny had the opportunity to spend the most time with. "You mean to tell me that bloody tosser has been sneaking around the school with my sister after hours and you never thought to mention it?"

"They aren't sneaking," Hermione replied, rolling her eyes at him. "They're doing their prefect rounds, which you were perfectly well aware of."

"I didn't know they were doing rounds the way we do rounds," Ron retorted.

"If by that you mean checking empty classrooms and such for students that are out of bounds..."

"No, that is not what I mean," Ron interrupted, "and you know it."

"Please spare me the details about what you two actually do in empty classrooms," Harry said quickly.

"Oh for heaven sakes." Hermione sighed. "They aren't doing anything of the sort. If you must know, this is their first date," and she's not even really that interested, she finished in her head, keeping that bit of information to herself because she knew that Ginny wouldn't really want Harry to know. "And you are not going to corner him tomorrow night before their rounds," she added, looking directly at Ron now, "and make an issue out of it."

The hell I'm not.

BREAK...BREAK...BREAK

"At least he's a Gryffindor this time," Harry said out of the blue, as he followed his best mate out of the castle and the two of them mounted their brooms. Which means I can keep an eye on him, he added in his head.

"Who?" Ron asked, pushing his broom to the limits just to keep up with Harry's Firebolt as they zoomed towards the Forbidden Forest.

"That David bloke," Harry replied, banking to the left just before he reached the trees and headed for the Quidditch pitch to do a couple laps.

"Oh, him," the redhead replied, none too happy about the reminder.

It had been nearly two hours since his sister had announced that she had a date and then left them standing in the Entrance Hall. That was a long time to still be dwelling on the subject, as Harry obviously was. It had been long enough for them to return to the common room, for Ron to beat Harry at chess more than once, and then announce that he was bored.

Of course that comment had really been directed at Hermione, who had buried herself behind a pile of books as soon as they stepped through the portrait hole. What he was trying to hint at was the fact that he'd love to drag her upstairs and take advantage of the fact that his dorm was empty and would be for a good long time. But when he tested the waters, he realized that Hermione wasn't going to have any of that.

Not that he really expected her to go for it. They'd discussed it the night before, when she'd snuck into his room and climbed in bed with him, and she'd decided that it would be bad form to leave Harry on his own while everyone else was in Hogsmeade. Although by the time they returned to the common room and he'd made his comment, she hadn't really been paying all that much attention to Harry, or him either for that matter. In fact, his comment had barely even registered with her. She'd been too engrossed in her rune assignment to pay much attention to what he said.

It had been far easier for her to tune out his words as opposed to what he was feeling though. That was something she couldn't ignore entirely, unfortunately she responded to it with irritation, so Ron quickly gave up. It made more sense to back off now and let her finish her assignment, so he could have her undivided attention later. If he continued to pester her or distracted her to the point that her annoyance turned into genuine displeasure, he'd only wind up sleeping alone for the rest of the weekend. And that being the case, when Harry suggested they go flying, Ron jumped at the opportunity.

"So what do you make of him?" Harry asked, drawing Ron out of his own head and forcing him to focus on him once more.

"Devane?" he questioned. "I'm not blind like Hermione. Just because he's a prefect doesn't mean he isn't also a lecherous sod that's only after one thing."

"That's what I thought," Harry mumbled to himself. "So what are you planning on doing about it?"

"What can I do?" Ron replied, bringing his broom to a stop and hovering beside his best friend. "You know how Ginny is. She isn't going to listen to anything I have to say. If I bring it up she'll just call me a prat and tell me to butt out. And if I pull him aside and threaten him, and he tells her about it, not only will Ginny jump all over me, but I'll have to deal with Hermione as well."

"Speaking of which," Harry said, motioning towards the grounds with a nod of his head. "What up with that?" he asked, as they watched Hermione amble towards to Quidditch pitch. "I didn't expect her to surface again until she was finished with her essay or needed another book from the library."

"Me either," Ron admitted, even more surprised by her unexpected appearance than Harry was. "I better go see what she wants," he said, his brow knitting together as he glanced at his friend momentarily before shooting Hermione a disconcerted look. "I'm sure it's nothing," he said to himself. "Why don't you wait here?" he added, pointing his broom towards the ground and descending before Harry had a chance to answer.

BREAK...BREAK...BREAK

Something wasn't right. Ron wasn't quite sure what it was yet, but he knew something was off. There was no reason for Hermione to postpone her homework and seek them out, unless something was wrong. But that wasn't what worried him. What really bothered Ron was the fact that he hadn't felt her coming. He hadn't even realized that she was outside and looking for them until Harry pointed her out and that didn't make sense.

Normally when they were separated for a brief period of time and she saw him again, say after her late afternoon class, or in the morning after they'd spent the night apart, he felt her react the instant she saw him. It had become somewhat commonplace for them to experience a brief jolt of emotions when they were reunited, whether it be happiness, love, basic contentment, or just a feeling that things were the way they were supposed to be now that they were back together. She always felt something, only this time, whatever she'd been feeling when she spotted him had gone unnoticed.

Maybe there is something wrong with the link, he thought, quickly doing the math in his head and realizing that it had been just over two weeks since they'd taken the potion. Two weeks and two days to be exact. Long enough for the rudimentary version of the potion to wear off. But they hadn't taken that version, they'd taken a more advanced form and they had been maintaining it regularly. But maybe that's not enough. Maybe she made some sort of mistake with her calculations or maybe it's just not possible to maintain it without drinking the stuff every couple weeks. If she tried to check up on me while I was outside and realized that the link wasn't working right, that would explain why she came out here, he told himself as he landed in front of her and dismounted his broom. It makes sense that she'd want to take it again, while everyone was still in Hogsmeade.

"What is it?" Ron asked, studying her face closely looking for any sign of anxiety, but he couldn't help notice that she was looking up at Harry, rather than at him. "What's wrong?" he asked, even more on edge now than he had been before, because as far as he could tell there was absolutely nothing wrong with her. She didn't look worried and when he concentrated on trying to sense how she was feeling, he didn't feel any anxiety. Not at first anyway. It wasn't until she picked up on what he was feeling that he felt her react with concern of her own.

"Nothing," Hermione replied, giving him a weak smile before glancing up at Harry again for the briefest of moments.

"I thought you were working on your essay," Ron said, before she had a chance to get anything else out.

"Oh, that," she said dismissively, quickly refocusing her attention on him. "I finished it."

Something is definitely not right here, Ron thought as he looked at her skeptically. If there wasn't a problem with the link, then there was no reason for her to come after him. None that made any sense anyway. She'd been fretting about that blasted essay all during breakfast. It wasn't until they'd returned to the common room and she sat down and actually got started on it, that the annoying feeling of having something important that he needed to get done, but wasn't doing, actually left him. There is no bloody way she punched that essay out in an hour. She told me last night that she had at least two hours of translations to do before she could even really get started and that she wanted to do it while the common room was empty.

"Harry and I are busy, Hermione," Ron stated abruptly, being curt on purpose. "What do you want?"

"The castle is practically empty," she replied, without the slightest bit of annoyance in her voice or her eyes. "I thought maybe we could spend some time together."

"Is that so?" Ron asked, just as Harry landed on the ground behind him. "Just the two of us, eh? You sure you wouldn't prefer Harry?" he asked when he noticed her glance at him again.

"Prefer me to what?" Harry asked, looking from one friend to the other in confusion. "What's going on?" he asked, as he stepped in front of Ron. "Did something happen?"

It's about to, the redhead thought, dropping his broom and using the split second when Harry stepped forward and blocked Hermione's view, to pull his wand out of his back pocket.

"Don't get too close," Ron said, surprising Harry by grabbing the back of his jumper and yanking him backwards rather forcefully. "That's not Hermione," he stated, stepping in front of his startled friend and pointing his wand directly at the bushy haired imposter facing them.

"What do you mean that's not Hermione?" Harry asked, goggling at Ron.

"Ron?" she said, clearly as astounded by his announcement as Harry was.

The problem was, Ron wasn't buying it. The real Hermione, wherever she was, wasn't feeling surprised, anymore than she'd felt insulted or angry about the rude way he'd dismissed her. This person standing in front of them might look like Hermione, but Ron knew that it wasn't, which meant that either someone had a really sick sense of humor, or it was a Death Eater in polyjuice disguise. He was dead certain of it now and with that certainty came a jolt of panic that wasn't his own. The real Hermione had picked up on his fear as well as his anger. She knew something was wrong, seriously wrong, she just didn't know what it was and not knowing terrified her.

"Harry?" the imposter said, stepping to the side so she could look him in the eye as she appealed to him to intercede on her behalf. But when she moved, Ron moved with her and continued to blocked him from view.

"Don't," he growled, his eyes riveted on her hands. It didn't matter who he was talking to. Whether it was a prank gone wrong or a Death Eater, whoever this was, they had no right to speak to Harry.

The fact that she turned to him was what clinched it for Harry. The real Hermione would never do that. She was more than capable of handling Ron on her own, wand or no wand. She wouldn't just stand there and let Ron hold her at wandpoint, anymore than she'd look to him to play the hero and come to her rescue. She'd square her shoulders and browbeat Ron into submission herself with a verbal assault that would probably be heard clear up at the school.

His mind made up, Harry reached for his own wand, and that's when it happened. In that split second that his confusion gave way to suspicion, his scar ignited. He hadn't felt so much as a twinge since his birthday and in the blink of an eye, the connection he had with Voldemort surged to life; surprise, disappointment, frustration, and rage that was not his own coursed through his body, along with a great deal of loathing and a modicum of concern.

"STUPEFY!" Ron bellowed, the instant Harry cried out behind him and slapped his hand over his forehead. The jet of red light hit the Hermione-like doppelganger square in the chest as she was drawing her wand.

It wasn't until she keeled over backwards that Ron became one hundred percent sure that he hadn't made a mistake. If the real Hermione were unconscious, he wouldn't be able to feel her fear pumping through his body, but it was still there, stronger than ever, because she now knew that he was worried about Harry. But he couldn't focus on Hermione right now. Wherever she was, she was safe. Harry was the one who needed him. He was the one that had cried out in pain and dropped to his knees as Ron cast his spell.

"Harry?" he shouted, watching his best friend clutch his stomach and retch all over the grass. "Are you all right, mate? She didn't ..."

"Not her," Harry managed to get out, before throwing up again. "Him. He's angry," he said, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his jumper as the piercing pain in his forehead eased a bit. "Really, really angry. He didn't expect us to figure it out. Not so soon. He's worried because he doesn't know how we did it, but mostly he's just angry."

"He's not... here is he?" Ron asked, tightening his grip on his wand, looking fearful as he glanced towards the Forbidden Forest. It was a dark, dank place full of giant spiders and Merlin knows what else. A perfect place for Voldemort to lie in wait and watch as his trap was sprung.

"No," Harry replied, forcing himself to stand up again.

"Then how'd he know?"

"I think... I think he was watching through..."

"Through you?" Ron asked, looking at Harry with wide eyes.

"No," Harry said again, although he couldn't be certain of that fact. But surely if Voldemort had been watching through him, even if he'd been trying to do it subtly, he would have known. His scar would have prickled at the very least, wouldn't it? But he hadn't felt anything. Not so much as a hint that Voldemort was close or watching him, not until he realized that they'd recognized his Death Eater for what she really was and his plan of luring them away of their own volition had been thwarted. "No," he said again, "I think it was her. I think he was watching through her so I wouldn't catch on."

But Ron was only half listening to him by this point, because the relief that was flooding through him was far too strong to be solely his own, which meant that Hermione was close enough to see them with her own eyes.

"Bugger!" Ron swore loudly, as he spun around to face the castle and saw the billowing black robes of the professor sprinting across the grounds in front of her. "What did she bring that git for?"

"Step back, you fools!" Snape barked as he barreled at them, his own wand drawn.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted, running up to them as they stepped away from the stunned Death Eater sprawled out on the ground. "Ron!" she cried, throwing herself at him without bothering to slow down and nearly knocking him off his feet in the process. "Are you all right? What happened? "

"What is the meaning of this?" Snape demanded, narrowing his dark eyes at the form on the ground, before whipping his head up, and glowering at the boys. "I assume this is your doing, Potter," he said. It was only after he glanced at Ron, and saw that he was the one with his wand in hand, that Snape realized his mistake.

"What did you bring him for? Why not Dumbledore or anyone else?" Ron whispered to Hermione, who was standing right beside him now, staring at her duplicate in shock as Snape levitated her with his wand and bound her securely with a flick of his wrists.

"Your wand," he demanded, shoving his hand under Hermione startled nose, when he'd finished with her double.

"WHAT?" Harry cried out indignantly, while Ron tightened his grip on his own wand and glared daggers.

If there was a fake Hermione lurking around the school, there could be a fake Snape as well. One false move and Ron was bound and determined to curse the Potions Master as well. Hell, he might curse him anyway, just for the sheer enjoyment of it, and claim that he'd done it because he thought he was a Death Eater afterwards.

"Perhaps you are the real imposter," Snape said to Hermione with a sneer.

"Why would she go to you for help or bring you out here, if she were the fake?" Harry shouted, outraged on his friend's behalf.

"No one asked for your opinion, Potter," Snape barked back. "So shut your mouth and keep it to yourself for a change. Your wand," he said to Hermione again.

"Don't give it to him," Ron said, raising his own wand a bit higher just to make sure that Snape would notice and have to focus most of his attention on him. There wasn't much doubt in Ron's mind that the Potions Master could take him in a duel, but he couldn't take all three of them at the same time. If he made a move against one of them, the other two would nail his slimy arse and they all knew it.

Things might have gotten ugly then, had Dumbledore not shown up, followed almost immediately by Hagrid, who had his crossbow in hand. As panicked as she had been, Hermione had realized that she didn't have time to try and get into Dumbledore's office herself if she wanted to get to Ron and Harry before something happened, so she sent a group of second years she encountered in the corridors to do it, while she continued to look for another teacher to assist her. Tonks or McGonagall would have been her preference, as they were both members of the Order as well as people she trusted implicitly, but they were in Hogsmeade, along with most of the other professors who were either enjoying their day off or supervising the prefects on patrol. Snape wasn't just the first professor she encountered; he was pretty much the only choice she had at that point.

Fortunately for everyone, Dumbledore took control of the situation the instant he arrived, directing Hagrid to escort the trio up to his office, after informing them that they were to remain there until he and Professor Snape had dealt with their 'guest' and returned to question them.

"You heard im'," Hagrid said, placing his oversized hand on Harry's shoulder and giving him an encouraging shove that nearly knocked him off his feet. "Whacha waitin' fer? You too," he said to Ron and Hermione. "Let's go."

BREAK...BREAK...BREAK

"Will you please stop that," Ron said, after he'd watched Harry pace around Dumbledore's office like a caged animal for nearly thirty minutes. "You're making me tired just watching you."

"What am I supposed to do?" Harry shot back impatiently, using his friend's remark as an opportunity to vent a little bit of the anger and frustration he was feeling. "Just sit here and be all calm about it like you two?"

"Just because I'm not climbing the walls doesn't mean I'm not just as angry about all this as you are," Ron replied, despite the fact that he could see how Harry might jump to that conclusion.

If it weren't for the fact that Hermione hadn't let go of him since she'd found them on the Quidditch pitch, he'd probably be pacing a hole in the floor right along with Harry. Either that, or he'd have suggested that they use their brooms to duck out a window and find out what was going on. But she needed him where he was, sitting right beside her, holding her hand. She needed the physical contact to remind herself that he was really ok, because below the surface of her own anger, the fear about what might have happened was eating away at her and Ron knew it. He could feel it eating away at him too and he knew if he let go, or left her alone before she was ready, she'd let that fear get the better of her.

"Are you sure you didn't see where she came from?" Hermione asked the boys, who had already told her everything that had happened in detail, twice. "Because she didn't just appear in the middle of the pitch, she had to walk there from somewhere. Either she came from inside the castle, or from the forest, or from Hogsmeade. You must have seen which direction she came from," she said to Harry, who was pacing again.

"I already told you that I didn't."

"Well, I doubt it was the castle," Hermione said, more to herself than anyone else. "Because all the passageways are blocked now, although... she could have used the one that connects the Shrieking Shack to the Whomping Willow."

"What's it matter?" Harry ranted. "Anyone that was with her is long gone by now."

"Don't you want to know where she was trying to take you?"

"It doesn't matter where," he retorted. "All that matters is that he'd be waiting there. What I want to know is how you knew it wasn't really Hermione," Harry said, coming to an abrupt halt and staring at Ron.

"Yes, I'd very much like to hear the answer to that question myself," the Minister of Magic said as he opened the door behind Harry and stepped into the Head Master's office, followed almost immediately by Kingsley Shacklebolt and another man that Ron had seen in the Auror Department of the Ministry when he visited his father, but did not know. "You two did catch the Death Eater, did you not?" he pressed when no one replied.

"Who was it?" Harry asked, rather than answer the questions that was put to him.

"Bellatrix Lestrange," Kingsley replied flatly.

"THAT TWISTED COW!" Hermione shrieked, trembling with rage as she jumped to her feet. "She did this on purpose," she exclaimed loudly. "She wanted you to think that I'd betrayed you, that I'd hand you over to be tortured and killed as part of some deal I cut to save myself. That bitch," she said, putting voice to what Ron was thinking. "Where is she? I want to see her."

"Absolutely not!" Ron shouted the instant the words left her mouth. There was no way in hell he was going to let Hermione get anywhere near that tyrannical bitch. She'd just turn everything around for the sheer enjoyment of watching her mind games unhinge Hermione a bit more. Why give her the opportunity or the satisfaction? "It doesn't matter anyway," he added, "because we know you'd never do anything like that."

"I want to see her," Hermione insisted.

"It's too late," Shacklebolt replied. "She's already been transferred back to Azkaban."

"Azkaban?" Harry said, goggling at the adults in disbelief. "Why not just escort her to the gate and let her go if you were going to make it that easy for Voldemort to get her back?"

"Now see here," Fudge cried, wincing when Harry said the Dark Lord's name out loud. "I think we know a bit more about detaining prisoners than you do, Mr. Potter. Now then, Mr. Weasley," he stated, disregarding Harry altogether, as he already knew he wasn't liable to get much cooperation out of him. "I'd like to ask you a few questions."

"Whatever," Ron replied sullenly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Fudge could ask all he wanted; it didn't mean he had to answer, although he couldn't be out and out rude about it like Harry, because Fudge might use it as an excuse to go after his dad. His mum had already mentioned that the Minister was looking for an excuse to sack him and he didn't want to be the excuse.

"How did you know that the Death Eater was using a polyjuice disguise?"

But rather than respond straight away, Ron glanced at the two Aurors who were standing there watching him, then back at the Minister, knowing that he couldn't tell them the truth. "I ought to be able to recognize my own girlfriend when I see her," he finally answered.

"Indeed" Fudge said, raising an eyebrow at the redhead's unexpected response.

"But she looked just like your girlfriend, did she not?" the unknown Auror asked.

"It wasn't so much how she looked," Ron elaborated, trying to skirt his way around the question without giving a detailed answer if at all possible. "It was more what she said that gave her away."

"And what was that exactly?" Fudge pressed.

"Why don't you ask her?" the redhead shot back.

"Provided she's even there when you arrive," Harry said, not even bothering to hide the disdain in his voice.

"I'm asking you," Fudge said, choosing to ignore Harry's comment. Fortunately, Ron was spared from answering when the door flew open and Dumbledore walked in, followed by Bill, who looked just as perturbed to discover the Minister there as the Head Master did.

"Now Cornelius," Dumbledore said reproachfully, "just because I informed you of Lestrange's capture out of courtesy, does not give you free reign to interrogate my students without the knowledge or consent of myself, their Head of House, or a family member. So unless my mind is even more addled than you maintain, I can say with reasonable certainty that I did not give you permission, any more than Professor McGonagall did, as I happen to know that she is currently indisposed recalling the students from Hogsmeade. And as Mr. Weasley here," he said, nodding his head at Bill as he pressed on, "seems to be just as surprised to find you in this office as I am, I can only deduce that he did not give you permission to question his brother. That being the case," he added, when Bill nodded his head in agreement, "I will show you and your guards to the door."

"I must insist on being allowed to question these...witnesses," Fudge retorted. "This is now a matter of Ministry Security and it is of the utmost importance that we..."

"Be that as it may," Dumbledore interrupted, "the 'witnesses' are minors and entrusted to my care, so unless you have written permission from their parents, or in Mr. Potter's case, his legal guardian, I am afraid you will just have to make due with the statement I will provide you once I have amassed the facts myself. In the meantime, I believe you have a prisoner who is capable of answering any question you might like to pose. I daresay she knows a great deal more about this matter than these students. Good day, Minister," he said abruptly, stepping away from the open door so his unwelcome guests could pass.

"Bloody Hell, Ron!" Bill exclaimed loudly, as Dumbledore escorted the Minister through the outer chambers and made sure he descended the spiral steps. "Between you and Ginny," he said, shaking his head in exasperation. "First she gives me the slip in Hogsmeade and then I find out you've managed to go and get yourself attacked by Lestrange. Mum is going to go spare when she finds out about this you know, and somehow she'll find a way to blame me, you just wait."

"Is Ginny..." Ron started to ask.

"Fine," Bill assured him, raking his hand through his hair and taking up Harry's place pacing in front of Dumbledore's desk. "Perfectly fine. Tonks found her in some ruddy out of the way teashop. I dragged her back here with me. She's safely tucked away in Gryffindor Tower now, or at least she better be. "

"Madam Puddifoot's," Harry mumbled to himself looking rather stricken.

"Yeah, that's it," Bill replied. "Not exactly the type of place I'd expect Gin to feel comfortable in. Bit too frilly if you ask me. Although I suppose she knew I'd think that, which is likely why she chose that spot to begin with. Right handful, that one, always one step ahead of you."

"Well now," Dumbledore said to Bill, as he reappeared in the doorway. "I expect you'll be wanting to fill your parents in on the situation before they hear about it from someone else."

"Incompetent berk," Bill mumbled under his breath, knowing that the someone else Dumbledore was warning him about was probably heading for the front door of the castle as they spoke. He'd have to make it off the grounds before he could Apparate, but his first stop would probably be the Daily Prophet, where he'd toot his own horn and take credit for the capture in an effort to repair his soiled image. It wouldn't do to have his Mum find out about what happened by reading about it in a special edition of the evening paper. It would be far easier on her if she heard it from him.

"My fire is at your disposal should you care to use it," Dumbledore added. "And please assure your parents that I will contact them with a more accurate account of what happened once the students are all accounted for and a few other matters have been dealt with."

"Right," Bill said, as he approached Dumbledore's fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder out of an intricately carved bowl resting on a nearby table. "Keep and eye on Ginny," he said to his brother, as he stepped into the hearth. "And yourself," he added, throwing the powder at his feet. "The Burrow," Bill said clearly, before vanishing in a blaze of green flames.

"Now then, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said, taking a seat behind his desk and focusing his attention on Ron. "I already have a fairly good idea how it is that you managed to recognize Bellatrix for who she was, or who she wasn't I should say, but as Mr. Potter does not, why don't we start with that explanation first, shall we?"

"Er."

"It's quite clever really," Dumbledore said to Harry who was looking back and forth between his friends, who were staring at the Head Master with wide eyes. "Although I've come to expect nothing less from Miss Granger, or do you prefer to be addressed as Mrs. Weasley now?" he asked with a knowing smile.

"Oh god," Hermione moaned, covering her beet red face with both hands.

BREAK...BREAK...BREAK

Author's Note:

Yes, I know, another cliffhanger, and this one is even worse than the last. I'm afraid I've reached a point in the story where it just can't be helped. It could have been worse though. I could have left you all hanging at the "That's not Hermione" part of the story like I did my wonderful beta. That was just plain cruel of me. TEEHEE! But hey, on the plus side, you didn't have to wait all that long for this installment. :-)