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As usual the first week of school seemed to drag by, every lesson seeming to take forever. After that however days flew by, turning into weeks until finally I woke up on the Saturday of the first Hogsmeade visit of the year.
Hogsmeade isn't really a particularly big deal any more, nevertheless it still felt good to get out of the castle and go down to the village. I awoke early in the morning, as was my custom, and got dressed quickly. It was a cold morning in the middle of October. If you looked outside you could see the leaves from the trees swirling to the ground in a colourful mist of autumn shades. I wasn't quite sure what to wear, generally I just shove on any old thing, but it was a cold day and I wanted to look nice. Eventually I chose my black combats with a cute purple gypsy style top. I then laid out my red and gold gryffindor scarf, gloves and hat along with my thick winter cloak ready for when I came back for them after breakfast.
With a bright smile I trotted down the stairs, entering the common room with a twirl.
"Somebody's in a good mood today!" Commented a tired sounding voice from behind a chair by the fire.
"Good morning Harry! And how are you today?" I chirped slipping my arm around the back of his seat and leaning over.
"I'm not bad, tired though."
"Aww. What time did you go to bed? You really need to start getting more sleep!" My voice had grown a slight edge to it. Me and Harry had this argument at least five times a day and we still do, he doesn't sleep enough. But then I guess he does have something important to worry about; there don't seem to be enough hours in the day to worry about Lord Voldemort, so he has to stay up all night too.
"Here Hermione, take a look at this." He handed me a folded copy of the Daily Prophet.
The front cover was taken up by a huge headline, it said: 'Albus Dumbledore's Death, a Tragic Accident, Or Was It?' Underneath this banner title was the story; here's how it went.
'Earlier this year we published a report on the death of Albus Dumbledore, widely renowned as the greatest wizard of our time. Startling new evidence has now come to light. It says that Dumbledore, previously thought to have been blasted off the side of the tower by one of 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's' followers, more commonly known as 'Death Eaters' who attacked the school that night may, in fact have been killed by one of his own students. The name of this despicable person, we can exclusively reveal is none other than Draco Malfoy, son of one Lucius Malfoy who is currently serving a life sentence in Azkaban for being a member of the above mentioned organisation.' Draco Malfoy is thought to be in hiding, though to our knowledge he is still continuing to attend 'Death Eater' meetings with 'You-Know-Who'. Draco Malfoy had attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for six years before he eventually murdered his own head master. This was, almost certainly, on 'You-Know-Who's' orders and Draco Malfoy is wanted by the Ministry of Magic for; continued on page 7,8.
"Oh." All the bright cheerful happiness of this morning seemed to drain out of me, I felt my face fall. "Well, at least they got it half right."
Harry smiled sadly at me. "I suppose."
"I guess the Ministry wouldn't really want everyone knowing it was Snape. They wanted to keep up Dumbledore's perfect image as the only one who Voldemort ever feared, not as the man who was murdered by the person who only he truly trusted. And they had to pin the blame on someone, so there was Malfoy all ready to take it. I wonder what happened to him?"
Harry snorted. "What Malfoy? Who cares! Hopefully Voldemort tortured him to insanity and then killed him, horribly." The look on his face told me that Harry was deadly serious.
"Don't you feel even slightly sympathetic? Well, not sympathetic," I amended quickly at Harry's glare. "Just, well, he couldn't actually kill him in the end, could he?"
"So what! He pointed his wand at him, he cornered him, if it wasn't for him Dumbledore might have made it to safety. He as good as killed him! For gods sake Hermione, he led the Death Eaters into Hogwarts, behind all of Dumbledore's security, he almost killed you! Ginny! Ron! Everyone in the castle! If he hadn't been there then the Death Eaters would never have even found their way into the castle!"
I looked at my feet, everything Harry had said was true and yet, this idiotic, stupid part of me was still saying; 'but he didn't actually kill him, did he? In the end he couldn't point his wand at the headmaster who had done so much for him, look into his eyes and murder him, could he?' A much bigger part of me, the reasonable part (at least that was what I thought), on the other hand was replying; 'so he's a coward as well as a traitor and a murderer.'
Slowly I turned my head to look at Harry, he was gazing into the fire and seemed a long, long way away. "Have you been up all night worrying about this?" I said anxiously in his ear.
Harry glanced up at me guiltily and said; "well, not just this, it's, well Hermione, the Horcruxes. Where do we look? We don't even know for sure what they are (two of them we have no idea!) furthermore we haven't got a clue where to look for them. Where on Earth do we start!"
I gazed at him sadly. "Oh Harry, we'll find a way, I promise you. There's always a way, never give up hope. Like they say, quitters never win and winners never quit, we'll never give up Harry."
Harry smiled at me, I could see disbelief and desperation in his tired green eyes.
"Wow, you two really amaze me you know." We both jumped and turned to find Ron standing at the foot of the stairs. "We've not even had breakfast yet you're already having to stop each other giving up hope! Come on, we can worry about old Voldy later!"
Me and Harry both laughed and stood up. It was good to hear Ron's cheerful live-by-the-day optimistic outlook on things.
After a good breakfast of pancakes with lemon and sugar (to which I'm particularly partial) and a couple of glasses of fresh orange juice; me, Harry and Ron strolled out of the great hall to collect our outdoor protection then meet Ginny by the Oak front doors.
The four of us then set out across the grounds to Hogsmeade. With the crisp grass underfoot and the swirling breeze lifting our hair and twisting it together. I felt on top on the world. When I breathed out my breath came in a patch of spiraling mist (when I was little I used to call it dragon's breath). The bright sun lighting up everything on the this cold lovely morning seemed to top off my feeling of happiness, all the despair of earlier had melted away leaving me in a brilliant mood. I grinned with all the joy of the morning and slipped my arm through Ginny's.
"Come on Gin," I called. "Let's skip!"
So me and Ginny, arms linked together began to skip across the grounds with the boys trailing along afterwards. We both suddenly burst out laughing at exactly the same time and we were soon clutching at each other in ecstasy. When Harry and Ron appeared behind us their quizzical expressions just made us laugh harder, before long we were all rolling on the floor, our breath coming choked whilst fogging up the air around us with our cackles and giggles.
Eventually I drew in a long deep breath, a smile of the purest happiness illuminated my face. "Why are we laughing?" I asked. The others gradually regained their composure, all three of them had the same delighted smile of bliss was plain on their faces.
"I have absolutely no idea!" Ginny chuckled.
After a minute of gazing at each other and laughing we all carried on strolling leisurely towards the wizarding village.
Hogsmeade was as beautiful as always, the little thatched whitewashed cottages looking perfectly gorgeous and the long cobbled streets made me wonder for a second if we had stepped back in time. The difference between the old muggle streets and here though is that here everything is bright and sparkling clean. It is the kind of place in which I dream of living, with an ordinary life: an enjoyable job, a husband whom I love, kids and most importantly, no Voldemort. However as I looked around the stunning village it seemed to me as though something was missing.
The tranquil, unspoiled streets seemed almost too quiet, there was hardly anybody out there. I guess it was because there was hardly anybody in Hogwarts to come, I wonder what will happen to all the shops, I mean they got their main group of customers from Hogwarts so they must get a lot less money now, I hope none of them go out of business, it would be a sad loss to the wizarding world if Honeydukes was no more.
Anyway we turned up the main street of Hogsmeade and set off for our first stop off at Honeydukes (one of my favourite shops ever…!) There we purchased a large assortment of sweets and chocolate. I even remembered to get some of that flossing stuff for mum and dad that they like so much.
I doubt they would have minded if I hadn't but it's always nice to remind people how much you love them, particularly in these times. Before it's too late. I once read a little story, I can't remember much of it but it was something about a boy and his girlfriend who were going to fast on a motorbike. He made her tell him she loved him and then he gave her his helmet. They then crashed and the boy died. He had realised as they were driving that the brakes had stopped working and they were going to crash, so he saved his girlfriend.
I sighed, everyone was in danger these days but I don't think I could bear it if I lost my parents, Harry is amazing to be able cope with it. I don't know what I would do, I can't even begin to imagine a world without them.
Looking around I noticed Ginny, Ron and Harry all staring at me. "Erm, 'Mione, you still there?" Ron was looking rather confused.
"What? Oh, yes, what did you say?" I replied dragging myself out of my deep, dark thoughts.
"I suggested that we leave," Ginny giggled. "But you can stay and gaze longingly at Dean for as long as you like Hermione, we'll wait for you in the Three Broomsticks."
"What! No I'm coming, I was just lost in thought, not gazing longingly at Dean!" I must have sounded slightly incredulous because all three of them began to laugh.
"Oh come on!" I huffed and bustled them out of the shop. When we got outside I pouted, giving them my best puppy dog eyes. "Well, I can see just how much you guys care about care about me! I'd better be going now…" I turned and began to walk, painstakingly slowly away. Three…two…one….
"Aww come on 'Mione, it was only a joke!" Ginny trotted up behind me and slid her arm around my shoulders. "We know you don't really fancy Dean… or do you?"
Ron was standing behind her looking distinctly ill at ease with the turn of the conversation. Oh I do hope he isn't going to start getting all overprotective of me.
I turned my head and glared at Ginny, but, luckily, or not as you see it, she could see the laughter in my eyes. Grinning she turned me around and steered me towards the Three Broomsticks for a nice warming butterbeer.
A few minutes later I was seated round a small table with a mug of butterbeer in my hand in the smoky, comfortable pub. It was very different to how we were used to it, busy and bustling, for there was hardly anyone there. Not only were most of the Hogwarts students missing but a lot of the other customers were absent as well. I suppose the threat of a powerful Voldemort was hanging over people's heads like a smoky cloud, making them scared to leave the house. Though personally I don't see how home is better than a pub if you're going to get attacked, it just doesn't seem to make much sense. Although I suppose that wherever you feel safest and happiest is your home in your heart.
This definitely seemed apparent when we arrived back at the castle later after a wonderful day of shopping and happiness. Everyone sank into comfy, soft seats by the fire and sighed, this was truly a moment to remember, but as I thought that I felt a twinge of sadness. For you can never go back to a moment in which you are truly happy and it was a hard road ahead for us all.
A/N
Hey Guys, thanks so much for the reviews! I'm really glad you like
the story, nice long chapter for you again! Hope you enjoy
it!
DracosPunkbabe: Thanks for the review! Draco should be
appearing fairley soon, though I'm not entirley sure when. Hope you
continue to enjoy the story and I like your name!
Sparkle
Black: Thank you so much. I don't think you should be that
worried about Ron... And you didn't offend me, you were just being
honest, which I appreciate very much! You are just great, thanks for
reviewing every chapter! And I never mentioned this before but I
really like your name!
jalapeno1011: Thanks for the
reviewing, I'm glad you like it. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
I
hope you all continue to enjoy, and if there is anyone reading this
who hasn't reviewed, please do! I love to hear from you! Thanks for
reading,
Miss Moonshadow
