Sam walked down the cobblestone streets towards the tattoo parlour. She seemed happy--more happy than her black and purple outfit, tattoos, and various peircings seemed to portray.

She practically skipped up the front steps and through the door of the parlour.

Tom looked up, startled. "Samantha?"

"Sam. Sorry I'm late, Tom. I must've overslept. Won't happen again." It was almost a giggle.

"Yeah, well, seems ta be a trend today." The older man mumbled, shaking off the girls unusual giddiness.

Sam, who had been about halfway through the door to the back room, froze.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, you're the firs' one in today. Derrin an' James haven' shown yet."

Sam was startled. 'James' late for work? Derrin was understandable, but Harry?

"I wonder why..."

"Well, we 'ave a large group comin' in, an' until they choose to pop in, we're alone. So let's get ready to go, shall we?"

"Uhm, y-yeah." Sam suddenly seemed distracted. What could keep Harry from showing up? It wasn't like he had anywhere else to go... And as harsh as that sounded, it was true. So where was he now?

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

"Ron, wake up. Ron..."

A sharp rap on the head, shortly followed by a moan.

"Gods Hermione, what was that for?"

"You needed to wake up. I don't know how long we were out. And I have no idea where Harry is."

"What?" Ron sat up and looked around. They were sitting in the middle of a graveyard. It took a second before Ron remembered their apparition last night to try and catch up with Harry. They appeared in the middle of the graveyard. There was that startling second when thy both realized that the invisibility cloak was still at the parlour, then the even more horrifying second when Ron and Harry had locked eyes. Then greenish white light, terrible pain, and darkness.

But what the hell had happened to them? What the hell had happened to Harry and the other boy, Derrin?

"Hermione, what happened?" Was all Ron could think of saying at the moment.

At these words, however, Hermione fixed Ron with a glare that could melt ice. He actually started backing away.

"You were seen." She spat.

"What?"

"He saw you, and you know it. That's why you were out longer. You and Harry made eye contact."

Ron's face twisted. "I know that, but you can't blame me, can you? We forgot the invisibility cloak, didn't we? So he could've seen you just as easily. And that still doesn't answer my question. What happened?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "He saw you, and that must have triggered the curse. Since he only saw you, you were affected the most out of us two. I imagine Harry got off a lot worse, so now we really need to find him."

Ron sat there digesting this information for a while then said, "Well, Hermione. What use is it to follow him now?" He continued quickly before Hermione could cut him off. "I mean, yeah, it would be good to find him again so we know where he is, but then what? We can't do anything to help him just by following him around, can we? We should contact Dumbledore and research the curse that caused this. That's the only way we would be able to help him, right? I'm tired of doing nothing to help him."

"But we were helping him," Hermione protested. It was obvious she knew Ron was right, she just didn't want to agree.

Ron snapped. "How, Hermione? We need to really help him. And you know I'm right. I'm tired of arguing with you, you know that? We need to decide on a course of action and stick to it. Okay? So what'll it be? We actually do something to help Harry, or we tag along behind watching him suffer and doing nothing about it."

Hermione's face was red. Apparently she never thought that Ron could take charge like that. After a minute of awkward silence, she nodded. Her eyes seemed watery.

"Okay Ron. We'll contact Dumbledore then find out everything we can about the curse. I know that that's the only way to help Harry."

Ron's face softened. He took a step forward with his arms out and Hermione collapsed into them, crying. "Shhhh. It's okay, Hermione. We'll find something. We'll help Harry. We just need to be sure we're always on the same page. It'll make things so much easier."

"I kn-know," she sobbed quietly. "I'm just so s-scared..." her voice trailed off.

Ron rubbed soothing circles on her back. "I know 'Mione, I'm scared too. But we need to stay strong. And we need to be able to support one another if we plan on supporting Harry when we find a way to help him. Let's just take it one step at a time, right? We'll start by contacting Dumbledore, then move on from there. 'Kay?"

In Ron's safe and warm embrace, Hermione took a deep, calming breath, and nodded.