"You ok Hermione?" Hermione looked up in the green eyes of Harry Potter.

"What?"

"I said are you ok?" He looked slightly worried now. He had been asking her that same question ever since he and Kingsly had found her over the summer. She was about to give him a reassuring smile when Ron came into the Great Hall with Ginny. Her face changed instantly. She watched him as he made his way down the isle and sat down next to Harry.

"Morning." He mumbled as he dug in to the spread before them. Ginny and Hermione grimaced at him and then looked up when they heard the screeching of the owls.

"POST!" Seamus yelled. They watched as the usual owls made their drop off. Hedwig and Pig landed in front of their masters. Hermione waited as a brown screech owl flew towards her. She paid the owl and took the Prophet from it and was about to start reading when a small barn owl flew down in front of her. Ron, Harry and Ginny looked at her and then at the owl. She took the letter from the owl and then to her surprise, it flew to Dumbledore instead of out the window. She unfolded the letter and read,

Dear Hermione,

How are you honey? We've missed you so much. I hope you're not causing too much trouble. Well the reason we decided to contact you is to tell you that the case lost. We're so sorry. Your father cursed up a storm when we found out. The hard part about it is that he is to be arriving at your school in ten days.

Hermione stopped and closed her eyes. No. No. No NO! She got up, picked up her bag and left the table without explanation. She needed to be alone to finish this letter. She ran out of the Hall and out to the lake and sat down by the tree.

The Ministry informed us that it would be a better way to keep an eye on him. We asked how they could let him get a way with it and they told us that there wasn't enough evidence against him. Remus Lupin said that most likely it had something to do with the fact that we were muggles. What a horrible thing! We are so sorry and have written a letter to Dumbledore and have told him that he do what ever it takes to make sure it doesn't happen again. Remember, you have your friends to talk to, especially that one, Harry, seeing as he was there. Hermione, please owl us as soon as possible. I want to hear from you again.

Love,

Mum and Dad.

Hermione couldn't breath. He would be there. The one man that haunted her.

"NO!"

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­


"Are you sure you're alright?"

"For the twenty- third time, yes Ronald. I am fine."

Hermione had been distant and irritable since she left the table at breakfast and Ron couldn't figure out why. He glanced at Harry, who was helping Ginny with her DADA essay, and in Ron's opinion, was way to close to her for his liking. Hermione was having a hard time concentrating and couldn't hold it any longer. She threw down her quill picked up the letter, which she had stuffed in to her Herbology book and turned to Harry.

"Harry, I need to talk to you." With that said she walked out of the common room. Ron turned towards Harry with a questioning look. Harry shrugged and followed her out. When he arrived she shoved the letter into his hands and waited while he read silently.

"Well."

"Oh Merlin."

"What am I going to do?"

"Just avoid him."

"Avoid him. AVOID HIM?" Her was voice raising several octaves.

"Hermione settle down." Harry said grabbing her shoulders and directing her towards an empty room and out of the hearing of the nosy paintings.

"How am I supposed to just avoid him? Tell me that Harry."

"I don't know."

"Oh no…"

"What?"

"What if he's in Gryffindor?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Why?"

"Because Dumbledore will take care of everything. And even if he is in Gryffindor it won't matter. Anyway, you have bigger things to worry about?"

"Like what?"

"Like where the others are. Your parents didn't mention them and Remus didn't say anything about them being captured." Hermione paled visibly and began to pace the room. Harry watched her for a while from his position on the desk and then a question popped into his mind.

"Have you told Ron yet?" Hermione stopped and looked at him, a scared look in her eye.

"I…well… I was… er… no…" Harry let out a frustrated sigh.

"Hermione."

"Well. Why should I?" Harry rolled his eyes. He may be worse than her, but she's still stubborn.

"He deserves to know!"

"I can't"

"Ever since he got out of St. Mungos you've been distant with him. Why?"

"You know how he acts!"

"SO!"

"I… I don't want him to know… I…" Harry watched her for a while then asked the question that had been bothering him since the summer.

"Hermione…do you… do you love Ron?" Hermione spun around and stared at him, her eyes furrowed together and she regarded him closely. At first she looked indignant, then confused and finally acceptant. She looked away from him and looked out the window.

"If Ron knew what had happened to me, he'd probably end up in Azkaban for murder." Harry smiled.

"Ron has his problems."

"I wish I could have been there… I should have…"

"Hermione! Stop it! You knew you weren't capable of doing anything. You could hardly say anything, how could you have helped Ron. Besides, it wasn't as bad as it looked at first. The pieces of wood made it look worse." Hermione was silent for a while and then she turned and took his hand in hers and looked down at the clasped hands.

"Ginny deserves a man like you Harry." Harry went red instantly.

"What does Ginny have to do with this?"

"Everything. If Ron knew that you liked his sister, his arrival at Azkaban would probably come a lot faster than expected and I wouldn't be able to tell him what happened now would I," she told him winking cheekily. Harry paled. Hermione laughed, "Pull yourself together man! You're the boy who lived! If you can survive the wrath of Voldemort then you can survive the wrath of Ronald Weasley."

"Yeah right! Fighting Voldemort is one thing, fighting Ron is even scarier!" Hermione smiled and led them out of the classroom and back into the common room, feeling considerably better than when the letter had arrived. Before they arrived at the couches Hermione leaned into Harry and whispered, "Yes, I do love him." With that she sat back in her original spot, ignored Ginny's annoyed look and Ron's puzzled one and continued her essay.


The week had passed without much going on. Ron and Hermione bickered plenty of times, but other than that nothing happened. It wasn't until the Wednesday that Hermione's mood towards everyone, especially Ron changed for the worse. She became extremely irritable and very anxious.

"Ron stop it."

"What?"

"Stop it!" Ron turned to Harry with a disbelieving look on his face. All he was doing was chewing on his quill. Hermione did it all the time. In fact, that was what she was doing right now. What is wrong with her? He shrugged his shoulders, and went back to his essay, but instead of chewing his quill, began to tap it on the inkbottle next to him.

"Ron just stop it," she snapped, glaring at her notes as if she were trying to burn a hole in it. Ron chose to ignore her.

"Ronald Weasley, what part of stop it don't you understand!" She hissed turning her glare onto him. Ron glared back.

"What the bloody hell is your problem!"

"ME!" They received angry glares from the librarian.

"Me." she hissed quietly, "What makes you think that I'm the one with the problem, you're the one who won't listen and stop it!" Harry tried to ignore the two but it was impossible when their volume began to climb again.

"You're impossible!"

"Oh really. I'm not the one who won't listen."

"Just because you're a bossy, controlling know it all doesn't mean I have to listen to you or obey you for that matter!"

"CONTROLLING!"

"Yes controlling. You think you can just tell me what to do and I'll just roll over like a dog and obey."

"Well at least a dog has better manners than you…" she muttered under her breath.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!"

"Nothing, except for the fact that you're an insufferable, inconsiderate, ill mannered PRAT!"

"A prat! A prat am I! You're the one who started this whole thing."

"Well we wouldn't be arguing if you weren't so thick!"

"No. This wouldn't have started if you weren't so controlling. Isn't she controlling Harry?" Harry's eyes grew larger as he gazed up at the two figures. By now they were both standing and glaring daggers at each other. Ron, of course, was towering over Hermione, his face blending perfectly with his hair making him an extremely scary sight to behold. Hermione made up for the height difference by her glaring. Her hair was all frizzled up and she looked close to smacking Ron right in the face.

"Er… I… well… um… you know what… I'm going to go and see if Neville needs help with Herbology."

"VERY FUNNY HARRY!" They both screamed, then turned on each other.

"MERLIN HERMIONE! What is your problem!"

"NOTHING!" With that she began to pack her things and started for the exit.

"Just going to run away are you!" Hermione was at the exit when she turned around.

"BITE ME!"


Why did you do that?

ME!

Yes you! You're the one who always gets us in these positions.

Excuse me! I happen to like the guy! Why the hell would I be responsible for your bloody mistakes?

Hey! I'm the brain of this operation. Excuse the pun.

Oh! A right bit of brainwork you did! Now he's mad at us! Just because Wellington is coming in two days doesn't mean you have to take it out on him.

I'm sorry but he was getting on my nerves.

We were doing the exact same thing!

You know what? This conversation is over!

Hermione groaned. She had secluded herself to the confines of the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. It was a place where no one could see her and therefore couldn't find her. Ron hadn't been doing anything and she knew that snapping at him had only provoked him into an argument. She was about to take out the notes she had been analyzing when she heard something move in the bushes.

"Hello?" There was a small scream and the sound of something being dropped. Hermione took out her wand and entered the forest. She was about to give up her search when she heard someone scream again. She ran towards the sound and was about to call out to the person when she saw something. She walked toward it, and then she screamed.