Chapter 27

Harry looked around himself and saw that he seemed to be walking in some sort of grass field. He knew that he'd never been here before.

What am I doing here? Harry thought.

He saw a hill ahead of him and began to climb it. Once he got to the top, he looked beyond him and saw that some sort of event was happening. He saw a gazebo, a whole lot of chairs set up in front of it, and many people walking all around. As he got closer, he realized that all the people there seemed to be dressed up in fancy dresses and tuxedos. When he examined all the people, he saw one lady in a white dress.

This must be a wedding...Harry thought, now curious as to who was getting married.

He finally got up to the place and started to walk towards the people. Since he was in such a hurry to find out who was there, he accidentally almost bumped into a girl that was walking by him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I – " Harry started saying.

But the girl walked on past him as if he wasn't even there. Harry was confused for a moment, but then he realized that this was just like Dumbledore's pensieve, where the people he saw could not hear him or see him.

Am I in someone's memories? Harry puzzled a moment.

Suddenly Harry stopped thinking about it when he saw a familiar face. It was Dumbledore. Significantly younger, but it was definitely him.

Dumbledore in a tux?! That's something I never thought I'd see! Harry thought, who'd only ever seen him in his wizard's robes.

Harry walked a bit closer and he saw other people he knew.

There's McGonagall, and Flitwick! They're so young! I could hardly recognize them. Harry thought, looking at both of them in awe.

Harry examined McGonagall a little closer and thought, Wow, she's not too bad looking...

But as soon as he completed that thought, he shuddered. He reminded himself that this was his Tranfiguration teacher.

If everyone here is so young, I really wonder who is getting married...It has to be one of their friends. Harry thought.

He got closer and finally got a close look at the girl in the white dress. She had a kind face and long, flowing black hair. He saw that when she laughed she had dimples.

Well, there's the bride, so where's the groom? Harry thought, searching around for him.

He walked around a bit more and heard a few people talking.

"So, Tom, what does it feel like to finally have tied the knot?!" a guy Harry didn't recognize said, while slapping another guy on the back.

This is when the girl in the white dress walked over to them and the guy who had his back slapped swept her up into a big hug and spun her around. Harry finally saw his face and couldn't believe his eyes.

"I feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world." he said while smiling.

That can't be...Tom Riddle?! Harry thought in absolute shock.

Harry didn't get to ponder this long since the dream suddenly changed. He saw that he was now in a house that he'd never seen before. He looked around the room he was in and saw that it was a regular bedroom. He walked outside the room to see if there were any other people in the house. He searched the other two bedrooms upstairs and found them empty. Then he made his way downstairs. Right in front of him was the living room, and that was empty too. He made his way down a hall that led out of the living room, and heard some noises in the kitchen. He walked cautiously toward the kitchen, wondering who could be in there. When he walked in, he looked forward and saw a woman by the sink with her back to him. She was humming a haunting tune and had deep red hair. Harry looked closer at her and realized that she felt familiar to him.

"Mum...?" Harry asked softly, the word escaping his lips before he even could think about it.

The woman turned around and smiled at him. It was indeed Harry's mother.

"Harry! I've been waiting for the longest time for you to come downstairs for dinner! Now sit down already!" said Lily, urging him to sit down at the table.

Harry slowly took a seat, still in disbelief that he was actually seeing his mother and talking to her. She placed some food in front of him.

"Mum...is it really you?" Harry asked haltingly, completely ignoring the food.

Lily laughed lightly and said, "Of course it is! Why wouldn't it be?"

"But...why haven't I seen you all these years? Why was I made to live with the Dursleys?" Harry asked her.

Lily stopped smiling and looked at Harry seriously and said, "Well, I've always been here, Harry."

Now Harry was very confused, but he decided that he didn't want to ruin the fact that he was actually talking to his mother. Then he suddenly realized that his father was no where in sight.

"Mum...where's dad?" Harry asked.

Suddenly Lily avoided his eyes and said, "Ahh, well...he's not here, Harry."

"Where is he?" Harry asked, now very curious as to his whereabouts.

"I don't know." Lily said sadly.

Harry looked at her in confusion. Lily then just got up and busied herself with washing dishes so that she would not have to answer anymore of Harry's questions. Harry felt this was odd, but didn't ask anything more. He ate his food in silence, just glad to be around his mother.

After a few minutes, Lily said, "Hurry up and finish. We must go somewhere soon."

Harry stopped eating and asked, "Where?"

"Let me show you." she replied.

Lily took his hand and led him out of the front door. Harry saw that they were in a small village. Harry expected her to take him to one of the other houses, but she did not stop. Soon they had passed all the houses and were coming upon a forest that seemed to surround the village. This scared Harry.

What could mum possibly want to show me inside that forest? Harry thought, alarm bells starting to go off in his head.

"Why are we going in there?" Harry asked, trying to slow down his mother's fast pace to the forest.

Without slowing down one bit she replied, "To give you to Lord Voldemort."

Harry stopped dead in his tracks and yanked his hand back from his mother.

"What?!" Harry asked in shock.

Lily looked at him in sadness and said, "I have no choice, Harry. My loyalties lie with him since we both were in Slytherin."

"But- but- what about dad?!" Harry asked, feeling fear and confusion coursing through his veins.

"I gave him to the Dark Lord as well. I must give him what he wants, Harry. I am bound to him." Lily replied.

"But- you- you can't do this!" Harry pleaded with her, feeling the pain and agony of betrayal inside of him.

How could mum do this? Harry thought in shock, suddenly feeling very weak.

Lily ignored and him and took his hand again.

"Come, now. We are wasting time. The Dark Lord is not a patient man." Lily said with some sharpness in her voice.

"No!! No, don't!!!" Harry said, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Lily pulled Harry deeper into the forest.

"No!" Harry said, waking up with a start.

As his heart rate and breathing began to slow down, Harry realized that it was all just a dream. He touched his face and saw that it was wet with tears and sweat. He needed to talk to someone right now about this. He could not simply just go back to sleep. Harry glanced over to Ron's bed, but decided against talking to him.

First of all, he'd be in a foul mood for me waking him up in the middle of the night, and then I don't think I want him to see me like this...Harry thought, getting up from his bed, I'll go talk to Hermione...

He quietly made his way out of his dormitory and walked down the stairs that led to the boys' dormitories. Then he made his way up the girls' stairs. He walked to the end of the hall and into Hermione's dorm. He searched the sleeping faces until he found Hermione. Then he walked over to her bed and shook her lightly.

"Hermione." Harry said softly.

Hermione slowly opened her eyes and when she saw Harry looking down on her, she gave a start and cried out a little in surprise. This caused the other girls in the room to wake up as well.

"Harry?" Hermione asked in confusion.

"Hermione! Are you alright?" asked Violet.

"I'm fine." Hermione replied, still trying to figure out what exactly Harry was doing in her room at this time of night.

But when she took a good look at him, he appeared shaken and slightly frightened. Suddenly someone lit a lamp to investigate what was happening. When the light shown through the room everyone saw that it was Lavender.

"What is going on here?!?" she asked, looking at Hermione.

"Harry's here too!?" Parvati said in surprise, seeing him since she was closest to Hermione's bed and suddenly bringing up her blankets around her.

This is when Lavender realized that Harry was here as well. This caused her to squeal and attempt to cover herself up, since she was not exactly decent.

"What is he doing here?!?" she now asked angrily.

"I wanted to...talk to you, Hermione." Harry replied softly, looking almost like he was lost.

Hermione realized that this was not the time to scold Harry for walking into a girl's dormitory in the middle of the night, especially since he appeared to be so upset. She pulled her sleeping robe around her and took Harry's hand.

"Let's go to the Common Room. We can talk there." Hermione said, leading him outside of the dormitory.

They made their way down the stairs to the Common Room and took a seat on the big couch there. It was rather dark since the fire had long gone out. The only light came from what cinders remained there.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked, very concerned about him.

"My mother...my mother tried to give me to Voldemort! She was taking me to him!" Harry said, some fear apparent in his voice.

"What? What are you talking about? Your mum is...dead, Harry." Hermione said carefully, not wanting to upset Harry further.

"In my dream." Harry replied.

"But Harry, it was just a dream." Hermione said as comfortingly as she could.

"It felt so real..." Harry said, now starting to come to his senses.

"Dreams can feel very real sometimes. I understand that." Hermione replied.

Harry sat there silently for a few moments, now feeling embarrassed.

"I'm really sorry for bothering you like this..." Harry said apologetically, "I shouldn't have come into your dorm like that...I think I scared the wits out of Lavender."

Hermione smiled.

"You weren't bothering me, okay Harry? If I had a dream like that, it would freak me out too. So tell me, what exactly happened in the dream?" she asked.

"Hmm...well, I was in a bedroom in a house I'd never seen before. I walked outside of the room to see if any other people were around. There was no one upstairs, so I went downstairs and found my mother in the kitchen. She told me to sit down at the table there and gave me some food to eat. I noticed that dad wasn't around and I asked her where he was. All she said was 'I don't know.' Soon she told me to hurry up and finish eating because she had to show me something. Then she led me outside the house. I thought she might take me to another house or something, but she didn't. She passed all the other houses around us and kept going towards a forest. I asked her why we were going there and she told me it was to give me to Voldemort. I asked why she was doing it, and she said it was because she was in Slytherin too and was bound to him." Harry said, forgetting momentarily about the sequence with Tom Riddle's wedding in it since this was the part of the dream that had upset him.

"Oh, I see what this is all about." Hermione said in understanding, "You're still on about how your mum was in Slytherin. Like I told you before, Harry, your mum was a good person! Your dad saw it and so did all of your parent's friends."

"I know that...but it's just really hard for me to accept it due my current impression of Slytherin." said Harry.

"I know what you mean..." Hermione replied.

Harry impulsively reached out and gave Hermione a hug.

"Thanks for not being annoyed with me for waking you up in the middle of the night to talk." Harry whispered in her ear.

Hermione pulled Harry closer to her.

"I'd never be mad at you, Harry. I know if I went through half the things that you did, I couldn't be as strong as you are." she whispered back.

Harry held on to her a few moments longer, then he began to pull away.

"We'd really better get back to sleep now." Harry said.

"Yeah, you're right." Hermione replied.

They walked back up the stairs and stopped at the stairs separating the boys' and girls' dorms.

"Good night, Harry." Hermione said, giving Harry one last hug.

"Good night, Hermione." Harry replied.

The two went up their respective stairs and went to bed.

After revealing to Draco her true relationship to Lucius Malfoy, Sophia didn't much feel like talking to anyone. She figured that if she talked to Cho at all, Cho would ask too many questions about it. Cho, being her best friend, quickly noticed Sophia's stand offish behavior. At first, she thought things had not gone well with George, so she tried giving Sophia some space for a while, but soon she realized that this could not be it alone since this behavior had been going on for days. Sophia did not even seem interested in activities she normally loved, such as long discussions about Quidditch. Finally Cho decided to talk to her about it.

She has been acting so strangely after her meeting with George! I've never seen her in such a bad mood for so long before...What could he have said to her that upset her this much? Cho thought suspiciously.

Cho waited for a good opportunity to speak with her and found it right before they were to have dinner that night. As the Ravenclaw Common Room began to empty out, Cho approached Sophia.

"Hey, Sophia...can we talk a minute?" Cho said, stopping Sophia from walking toward the portrait hole.

"Can this wait till after dinner?" Sophia said slightly impatiently, knowing that Cho was probably going to ask her about her supposed meeting with George.

"No. We need to talk right now. I want to know what exactly happened when you went to go talk to George. You've been in a bad mood ever since, and I want to know why!" Cho said.

Sophia looked at Cho and decided that she should just tell her what happened.

Since Draco already knows, I guess there wouldn't be any reason not to tell her...I know I can trust her, and it would be pretty nice to finally be able to talk to someone about it...Sophia thought, trying to figure out the best way to tell Cho.

Once the Common Room had cleared out, Sophia said, "It wasn't George that I met that night."

"What?! Who was it then?" Cho asked in confusion.

"It was Draco Malfoy." Sophia replied, "It wasn't even George who wrote that letter. Draco had followed us around and found out about what happened with George and used that to get me to meet him."

"Huh? But, why?" Cho asked, very curiously.

"He told me...that You – Know – Who wanted my necklace..." Sophia said quietly.

Cho's face seemed to lose some color at the mention of Voldemort.

"That can't be true, can it?" Cho in a low voice, "What would he want with a necklace your mother gave you?"

"My mother and I are closer to Voldemort than you think." Sophia replied.

Cho trembled slightly hearing Sophia say this.

"I've always lied to you about not knowing who my father is..." Sophia said, changing the topic suddenly.

"Who is he?" Cho asked, fearing that she's say her father is Voldemort.

"My father is Lucius Malfoy." Sophia replied.

Cho looked at her dumbfoundedly for a few moments, letting what Sophia said sink in.

"Oh." Cho said at a loss for words.

"It's something I don't like to think about but, it's still the truth." Sophia said, thinking that Cho might think she is evil now.

"He may be your dad, but you're still your own person. I know you're nothing like him." said Cho, trying to be comforting.

"I know. But I just hate knowing that I'm related to people like that." Sophia said bitterly, "Look, I just wanted you to know that. I didn't know how to tell you before, but since you're one of my closest friends, I knew that I could trust you. I don't want to talk about it any more. Why don't we just go to dinner."

Sophia led the way out of the Common Room and Cho followed behind her. Suddenly the way that Sophia had always acted when Draco was mentioned or was around made perfect sense to Cho.

I wonder why I never thought to ask her about her behavior around Draco before? It must be so horrible for her knowing her father is such a horrible man...at least her father isn't Voldemort...Cho thought, repressing the urge to shudder, But what is she going to do now that Voldemort wants her necklace? We have to find out why! Although, I don't think now is the best time to bring it up since she's pretty upset about telling me who her father was. I'll just tell her when she's had time to calm down.

With Cho's and Sophia's minds flooded with thoughts, they finally reached the Great Hall.

Much time had passed since Ron had talked to Hermione about asking Dean about Violet, and he still said nothing to Dean. He still had not gathered the courage to do it. He sat in History of Magic class, completely ignoring Professor Binns and concentrating on his own problems.

It has to be Dean! Who else can it be? Ron thought,questioning his conclusion for the millionth time, It's not Harry for sure and it's not Seamus...if only it was him! Then I could rip his head off like he deserves!

Ron shook his head, realizing that he'd once again gotten distracted.

It really can't be Neville...What would Violet see in a guy like that? Sure he's nice enough, but he's got the memory of a fish! It's definitely Dean, if anyone. Ron thought, I have to talk to him! I'm going to do it after this class is over.

Ron decided, to make sure he didn't chicken out again, he told Harry, Hermione, and Violet to go on without him and that he'd catch up with them in the Common Room. He looked around the room and saw that everyone was either asleep or zoning out. Except Hermione. Ron looked at Harry and saw that he seemed to be on the verge of dozing off. Ron quickly scribbled a note and elbowed Harry to get his attention. Harry gave a little start and then gave Ron a look that seemed to ask, "What was that for?!" Ron just handed Harry the note.

Hey, I'll meet you guys in the Common Room later after class. I want to talk to Dean about Violet first. I think he's the other guy.

When Harry finished reading the note, he looked over to Dean, who was out cold on his desk, and then to Violet, who was resting her head on her hand and struggling very much to keep consciousness. Then Harry wrote Ron back.

No way…It can't be Dean, can it? Why do you think it's him anyway?

Ron quickly replied.

I talked to Ginny about the whole thing. I know Violet told her who it was, but she wouldn't tell me. Finally, after I kept asking her, all she said was that it was someone I wouldn't like finding out it was. I figured that I wouldn't like finding out it was someone in my dorm, and since Dean's the only one that seems unattatched, I think it's him.

I don't know about that, Ron. I thought Dean sort of fancied Parvati. But if you want to ask him, go ahead.

Ron just nodded to Harry when he finished reading what Harry had written to show that he was still going to meet Dean after class. When class was finally over, Ron thought about what he might say to Dean. After Harry, Violet, Hermione and Ron got out in the hall outside of class, Ron hung around by the door, waiting for Dean to come out. Hermione and Violet realized it when they started walking and Ron was still by the door.

"Aren't you coming, Ron?" asked Hermione.

"No. I have to ask...Professor Binns about something." Ron said, realizing how silly that sounded as he said it since Professor Binns never really interacted with his students.

"Umm...okay, Ron. I guess we'll see you in a bit in the Common Room." Hermoine replied, slightly confused.

Ron waited until they were out of sight and then started looking for Dean. Luckily for him, Dean was one of the last students out of the classroom.

"Hey, Dean, could I talk to you for a minute?" Ron asked, stopping Dean from leaving.

"Sure, what's up?" Dean replied.

"I wanted to ask you something...about Violet..." Ron said, hesitating slightly.

"What about her?" Dean asked.

"Well...what do you think about her?" Ron replied.

"I think that she's an awesome Chaser! You could never guess that she's never had any previous Quidditch training." Dean said.

"No, not like that. I mean...do you...uhh...fancy her?" Ron asked awkwardly.

"What are you talking about? You're totally off your rocker, mate. Of course I don't fancy her." Dean said, giving Ron a weird look.

"Sorry, Dean. I just thought..." Ron started saying.

"Look, I know she's your girl." Dean said.

"Thanks, Dean. Sorry about bothering you like this..." Ron said apologetically.

"It's okay, man. I guess we can get up to the Common Room now." Dean said.

That's right! It can't be Dean...I remember I saw him at our tables at the Ball when I was looking for Violet...I don't know why I thought it was him at all...Ron thought, feeling slightly stupid, Well, now I have no idea who it is at all!

Ron decided that this was enough awkwardness as it was.

"Yeah, let's go." Ron replied, following Dean.