A/N I'm back! Thursday as promised. This chapter is a bit longer than the other ones, so have fun with that and... We've passed 5,000 views! Now we're almost at 7,000 :O Thank you to everyone who reviews, I love hearing what you think. Have I mentioned that this story is going to be canon-divergent? Well it is, just so you know. Thanks for reading and please review! ;)

Chapter 13

Hermione

"Have you seen Harry?" she asked Ginny, as she climbed down the stairs from her dormitory. When had she gotten back? Ginny shook her head. Her cheeks were flaming and she was shaking.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Hermione jumped up and hurried over to her.

"I'm going to have detention for the rest of my Hogwarts years, probably after that too." she said miserably.

"Snape can't do that!" Hermione said. At least she didn't think he could.

"Oh I'm sure he'll find a way." Ginny dragged herself over to a plush chair and threw herself onto it. Hermione followed.

"What happened?" she asked cautiously.

"I yelled at him. I nearly attacked him, and then I stormed out." Ginny buried her face in her hands and mumbled something else.

"Pardon?"

"I told him to clean his own damn cauldrons!" she wailed. Hermione bit the inside of her cheek, that was kind of funny.

"It's not funny!" Ginny snapped angrily as if she could see what was running through her brain. Hermione swallowed down her giggles.
"Right. But why would you say that? I'm sure he deserved it but-"

"He made Harry cry!" Ginny jumped to her feet, looking ready to punch anyone who dared to come near her.

"What?" Harry didn't cry. Hermione knew that, she had never seen him cry. Ever.

"What did Snape do to make him cry?"

Ginny was close to tears now herself. "I don't know! We were just sitting outside and then he was crying about how all of his family hated him and what was wrong with him to make Snape hate him and…" She shook her head furiously. "I just wanted to strangle Snape when I saw him, and eventually I cracked and-and-to top it all off I got a letter from my dead cousin!" She fell back into the chair and let out a strangled scream. Hermione rushed over to her.

"Where's Harry now?" she asked anxiously. They would just have to deal with the letters later.

"I don't know I've been in detention." she muttered. "He hasn't come here yet?"

"No…" Both girls looked at each other in silence for a moment.

"We should find him before he does something stupid." Ginny spoke first.
"Do we need the cloak?" Hermione asked.

"Probably, I'll get it." Ginny raced up to the boy's dormitory before she could stop her. In a flash she was back with the cloak.

"How'd you-"

"It's not important! Come on!" She grabbed Hermione's hand and dragged her out of the common room, flinging the cloak over them. It was past nine and they needed to find Harry before another teacher did.
"Let's check the boys bathroom first, the one on the second floor." Ginny said, walking almost too fast for Hermione to keep up. Wasn't that where she had found Draco the other day? Hopefully he wasn't there right now, she didn't have the will power to pretend she hated him.

"Slow down." she hissed when she nearly broke her neck tripping down a staircase.

"Sorry." Ginny muttered, barely breaking her pace. They arrived in the boys bathroom and Ginny charged in, ripping the cloak off her and Hermione. She blinked in surprise. Harry was here, but he wasn't alone. Draco was with him and they were both asleep, their robes spread out across the floor. This was really quite unsanitary. Ginny's mouth had dropped comically in shock. All of those germs, their heads were so close to toilets.

"Oi!" Ginny yelled. For a second Hermione thought they were going to sleep through it, but Draco began to stir first and when he saw them sleepily nudged Harry awake. She'd had no idea they were so close. Close enough to fall asleep together in the bathroom anyway.

"What is it?" Harry muttered, eyes still closed.

"Why the bloody hell are you sleeping in the bathroom! Anyone can come in and see you!" Ginny yelled.

"Keep your voice down!" Hermione hissed.

Harry's eyes flew open, they were red and puffy.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

Before Ginny could say anything, Hermione said, "We were worried about you."

"I'm fine." he said automatically. She caught the eye roll that Draco gave.

"We should leave before anyone finds us." Ginny said, walking over to Harry to pull him up. He and Draco reluctantly stood up, gathering their robes. As Harry and Ginny clasped hands and walked in front of them, Hermione drifted over to Draco and whispered, "What happened?"

He looked at her from the corner of his eye, "Well…"

"Just tell me!" Harry probably wouldn't. Well maybe he would, she just needed an excuse to talk to Draco. Wait what.

"Okay, uh. I was in the bathroom, because that's where I go… sometimes. And I saw Harry just hurl past the bathroom so I decided to make sure he was alright. And he was pretty pissed off about something, I could tell that much. Something about Snape I gathered, and I asked if he wanted to talk about it." Draco took a breath, pausing to make sure Harry and Ginny weren't paying attention.

"He started ranting, and I took him to the bathroom so no one would overhear. He started spewing a bunch of stuff about Snape and the Dudley's? I think something like that. And by then we were sitting in the corner, and he asked me to distract him. So we played this game called spot the picture, this game I played with my mom when I was a kid. And he fell asleep sometime after that, and I didn't want to wake him up, so I just went to sleep too."

"Oh…" She didn't know what else to say. "I didn't know you and Harry were friends."

He shrugged. "Yeah you should probably have him tell that story." Well now she wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it.

"I gotta go this way. See you tomorrow Granger." Then he was gone and she was left wondering how the hell the two nemeses had gone from enemies to close friends.

Harry

He had finally fallen into a deep dreamless sleep, something he hadn't experienced in what felt like forever, and then he was woken up. He appreciated it, but there was no way he was going to be able to fall asleep again like that tonight. He stared at the ceiling of his four poster bed and listened to Ron's snores. He supposed it was a good thing that they'd found him. Filch could've found them, or worse. Snape. Shuddering angrily he crossed his arms and blinked furiously. It just wasn't fair. Everyone else got loving, caring parents and he got Snape. After a night of silent fuming he stumbled down to the Great Hall. At least today was a Friday, so he wouldn't have to do homework after classes.

"Harry your tie." Ginny stopped him in the hallway and hurried to fix it. She brushed the hair from his eyes with a gentle hand.

"There." She gave him an easy grin and he was glad he at least had one normal thing in his life. They walked together into the Great Hall and took seats next to each other.

"Hello Harry." Luna tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hi Luna." he said trying to smile.

"I think you need this more than me." She handed him her butterbeer cap necklace. For some reason this simple act gave him a lump in his throat.

"Thanks." He took it and put it on.

"Anytime Harry." She drifted over to the ravenclaw table, dreamily twirling her wand in her fingers.

"Ginny what did your letter say?" Hermione asked, sliding next to Harry, and looking over at Ginny.

"You got a letter?" Harry asked.

"Oh yeah." She pulled it out and handed it to Hermione. Harry peered over.

Dear Ginny,

Remember me? Probably not. I died when you were only six, but I sure remember you. However I'm not here to talk about the past, as much as I'd like to. You must never let your anger get the best of you or else it will be your undoing. And you can be a greater help to your friend Harry than you think. You are such a special girl Ginny, don't forget that. You know what you have to do. I'm sure you can figure things out with a little help from Ms. Lovegood. I believe in you.

With Love,

Cousin Kayla

"Luna?" He looked back at the ravenclaw stirring her coffee with her wand. What did the letter mean about Ginny's anger getting the best of her? He would have to ask her about it later.

"I dunno." Ginny took the letter back and stuck it into her robes.

"This is the first letter to mention figuring it out." Hermione muttered.

"Figure what out?" Ginny asked.

"Why isn't it obvious?" Hermione said. Harry and Ginny gave her a pointed look.

"The letters! Where they're coming from!"

"Oh…" It made sense now that he thought about it.

"And helping Harry… You already know what you have to do?" Hermione looked questioningly at Ginny. She shook her head.

"I'm not sure what that means." Ginny shoved a piece of toast in her mouth.

"And this one doesn't reveal a secret!" Hermione carried on as if she hadn't heard a word Ginny had said.

"Probably because I don't have any." Ginny swallowed her toast and reached for another piece. When she noticed Harry hadn't eaten anything yet she handed him a muffin firmly.

"I think next we need to talk to Luna, and Ginny you need to figure out how you can help Harry, whatever that means, and the rest of us will do some investigating."

"Investigating?" Harry bit into his muffin.

"Yes. On ghosts." Hermione nodded firmly. Just then a school owl swept in front of Harry and handed him a message from Dumbledore. He cursed, he had completely forgotten about his lesson with Dumbledore.

"What is it?" Hermione asked Harry right when Ginny said,

"Ghosts! Why do we need to investigate ghosts!" Ginny blurted out.

"I forgot about my lesson with Dumbledore." he said.

"Harry!" Hermione chastised.

"What! I had a lot on my mind…"

"Can we get back to the ghost investigating? What does that even mean?" Ginny looked rather alarmed. Harry couldn't blame her, in all of their plans she had been the one to do the scary stuff.

"I just mean we should look in the restricted section, well that's the first thing." Hermione said.

Ginny groaned. "First thing?"

"We should also check professor Flitwick's office in case he has something on ghost charms or something."

"That's a thing?" Harry asked.

"Course it is Harry." Hermione sniffed.

"My bad." he said with a grin.

"Ginny you need to talk to Luna today and Harry and I, oh and Draco I suppose, will go to the restricted section tonight to look for stuff about ghosts. Then we'll make a plan to break into Flitwick's office." Hermione nodded to herself.

"Do you know how many rules we'll be breaking?" he asked.

"Obviously." she rolled her eyes. "I just don't care anymore, I fully intend to get to the bottom of this, even if I have to break every single school rule along the way."

Draco

"Breaking the rules?" he said when he approached the Gryffindor table. "I like the sound of that."

They'd been doing plenty of that recently, what would a few more times more do? He sat next to Hermione and offered her a smile. She gave him a look, not angry exactly, more like… searching. Ginny coughed. Draco looked at her.

"Yes?"

"Have fun in the restricted section tonight. Wanna walk to class with me Harry?" Without waiting for his answer she pulled him up and away from Hermione and Draco. Oh he was starting to like the Weaslette more and more.

"I have to go to class." Hermione said after a moment of awkward silence.

"I'll walk you. Charms is close to Muggle Studies." A moment too late he realized what he had said.

"Do you know my schedule?" She looked at him with a horrified expression on her face. He hadn't thought he had but apparently he did.

"Uh, no. I just have seen you walk by there a couple times." That didn't sound creepy, right?

"Okay." She took off, hugging her books to her chest. He quickly scrambled up from the table and hurried after her. All too soon they were at the Muggle Studies classroom.

"Bye." Without looking at him she barreled into the classroom and the door swung shut behind her. Damn. After potions Snape called coldly,

"Stay after class Mr. Malfoy." Oh shoot. He debated once again about making a run for it with Harry and Hermione, but the two traitors had shot out the door the second class ended. Draco heard the lock click in the door and realized he was trapped. There was no escaping now.

"What do you want?" he asked.
"Come here." Snape motioned for him to come closer. Reluctantly Draco dragged himself over to Snape's desk. He studied his shoes.

"Do you know?" he asked quietly. Every muscle in his body turned to ice. Snape could only mean one thing. Avoid eye contact. At all costs.

"Look at me." Snape said. His mind whirled wildly, he could not look at Snape or he would see everything. And Draco's mind was pretty full at the moment with lots of juicy details. Snape would see Harry saying all that stuff about him, and him kissing Hermione.

"Petrificus totalus!" Before Draco could second guess himself he yelled the spell and bolted out of the room, hearing Snape fall behind him. He sprinted down the corridor, knowing that Snape could perform wandless magic and uncurse himself in a few seconds. Run faster. He urged himself. He practically threw himself up the stairs, just wanting to put as much distance between him and Snape as possible.

"Draco?" It was Hermione, looking at him in shock as he hurled past her.

"Snape's after me." he breathed, stopping for a moment, waiting to see what she would do.

"Over here." She grabbed his hand and for a moment he forgot to breath.

"Come on!" she told him. They ran up another flight of stairs and into a bathroom.

"He can come in here!" Draco said, breathing hard.

"Girl's bathroom. Into the stall." She pushed him into a stall, and to his immense surprise came with him.

"We'll just stay here for a few minutes." she said softly. Then, "Why is Snape after you?"

"I cursed him after he tried to use Legilimency on me, and then I made a run for it." He was acutely aware of the fact that they were pressed right up against each other. He could feel her warm breath right on his chest.

"Wow, uh we've made quite the enemy of Snape."

He chuckled darkly, "You can say that again."

"Hermione Granger are you in the stall with a boy!" cried a girl's voice. Hermione cursed, then motioned for him to stand on the toilet.

"You can't be serious." he mouthed.

"Do it." she mouthed back, and gave him a little push to the top of the toilet.

"Climb over." she mouthed. What. WHAT.

"No." he mouthed.
"Of course not Lavender!" Hermione called, her voice very high pitched. "Just talking to myself."

He groaned inwardly.

"Now." she mouthed, pointing a finger over the stall. He handed her his bag and shot her a glowering look and prepared to climb over the stall wall. This literally made no sense as Lavender would probably notice a boy climbing over the stall wall. Taking a deep breath and silently praying no one was in the stall he was about to climb into, he swung a leg over the stall wall. Feeling like he'd just pulled about ten muscles, he struggled to pull himself the rest of the way. He'd been planning to pull both legs onto the narrow wall and then drop down, however after a push from Hermione he'd gone hurtling over the wall face first and hit his head on the toilet. At the exact moment Hermione had swung open the stall door with a bang and greeted Lavender very loudly. Ow. Ow. Ow. Sitting up and cradling his head he waited for Lavender to leave. Hermione had slid in front of his stall door.

"She's gone." Hermione's voice came. He groaned.

"Why Granger. Why."

"I'm coming in." Hermione's mouth formed an O.

"Your bleeding." she said. "I think you need to go to the hospital wing."

"I'm fine." he said, lifting his head. "See. We can probably leave now."

She studied his face, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Uh huh." The pain in his head had subsided to a dull throb.

"Let me at least get rid of the blood." she said. Hermione took her wand out of her robes and pointed it at Draco.

"Episkey."

He blinked a few times, then smiled. "Good as new."

"Oh, let's go." She had said lets. He didn't stop smiling after they had parted ways, even when he sat in the Great Hall and could feel Snape's glowering gaze.

Harry

After his lesson with Dumbledore, Hermione and Draco pulled him out of the corridor and into a bathroom.

"Here." Hermione took out his invisibility cloak and told the two of them to get under it with her.

"Where's Ginny?" he asked.

"With Luna." Hermione said.

"Still?" It was past curfew now.

"Yep, she had a lot to say. I think Luna is staying in the same dorm as Ginny tonight."

"Oh."

"You guys ready?" Draco asked. Harry nodded even though he knew they couldn't see him in the dark bathroom. The three of them moved out of the bathroom and into the corridor.

"You have the Marauders Map Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah." He unfolded it and tried to make it out in the darkness.

"Oh for heaven's sake Potter." Draco took out his wand and cast lumos so that the map was illuminated.

"Snape's in his office and Filch is on the sixth floor." He said.

"Good." They crept silently to the library and slipped into the restricted section.

"Just take everything you can find on ghosts." Hermione removed the cloak from them and they began to search the shelves. Harry pulled out anything that had ghosts in the title and soon they were all over laden with books.

"How are we going to make it to the dorms with all of these books?" Draco asked. Hermione sighed.

"I don't know…"

"We could always just stay here." Harry suggested. He had expected Hermione to protest passionately but all she said was,

"I guess we can, we have the cloak." Harry and Draco were already on the floor, settling themselves behind a stack of books. Hermione looked over her shoulder and then sighed.

"Oh alright." She placed her books next to theirs and draped the cloak over them. Their heads were hidden behind the book stack and the cloak was pulled up to their necks. Harry closed his eyes and with his friends on either side of him he felt safe, like no matter how much the world threw at him they would never leave his side.