Before I started Hogwarts, my life was about as simple and boring as any other eleven year old, English middle class little girl. My parents were dentists. My biggest thrill was reading a new book. And my best friend was my cat (who died later that year). Discovering that I was a witch changed many things in my life. However, I don't think it was magic alone that turned my entire world upside down. Because I observed many Hogwarts students leading equally simple and boring lives as the one I had led before. But I can tell you when my world first started moving in a whole new direction. You see, I was in a lavatory crying my eyes out when all of a sudden a troll staggered in...and, well, you can imagine my surprise...

The start of term seemed to fall upon everyone much too soon. They had just arrived at Hogwarts by Knight Bus, and Hermione could not recall ever feeling so unenthusiastic to return. And as she sat with Harry and Ron in the common room later that night, she could tell she was not alone.

Ron was slouched in his chair, mindlessly flipping through a Quidditch magazine. He had just finished recounting a rather unpleasant experience he shared with an elderly witch on the Knight Bus. ("As if I fancied having her cane up my—bless you," he said to Harry who had just sneezed.)

Harry had his head resting on one of his hands, his glasses going slightly askew and looking quite dejected. His upcoming Occlumency lessons with Snape gave him more reason than anyone to feel especially miserable about returning to school.

He sighed to himself just then as if hearing Hermione's thoughts.

"Harry, maybe it won't be so bad…" Hermione started rather unconvincingly.

He looked at her, unconvinced.

"I mean…Snape can't be any worse to you than he usually is, right?" she continued.

"Is that supposed to comfort me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, maybe he'll be a bit nicer! You know…because this is so important…he'll want to make sure you do well…" she finished lamely.

Ron snorted. "Yeah and I'm the Minister for Magic…" he said quietly, flipping a page in his magazine.

Hermione gave him a look, and then turned back to Harry.

"Okay," she said dropping her pretense, "it's most likely going to be terrible, Snape is going to be the same foul, unpleasant person he usually is, and you're probably going to hate it. But Harry, please…just remember that this is really important. If you can learn to block Voldemort from your mind, you'll protect not only yourself, but so many others as well."

Harry turned his head away from her for a moment. She could see him grit his teeth. "I know, Hermione…okay? I know," he said, but she was relieved to find that it wasn't in the same harsh tone he had taken to using with them recently.

"Good," she said. She knew Harry was the type to dwell on unpleasant things so she quickly tried to change the subject. "So…erm…how's Cho doing?"

Harry looked up as if he wasn't sure who she was speaking to. "Dunno," he replied, "I haven't talked to her."

"Oh…" Hermione looked around somewhat awkwardly, not knowing what else to add. However, she was saved by Ron.

"Are you two like…together now?" Ron asked.

Hermione quickly looked up at Harry.

"Dunno…" he said again. "We didn't really talk about that."

"Yeah, too busy snogging, eh?" Ron asked, wagging his eyebrows.

Hermione gave him a look of disgust.

"I'd hardly call it snogging," Harry chuckled.

Ron yawned and got up out of his chair. "Ah well, mate, there's plenty of time for that," he said, clapping Harry on the shoulder. "Well, I'm heading up to bed now. See you two tomorrow."

"G'night," Harry replied.

"I should be heading up, too," said Hermione after Ron left.

Harry looked up at her then nodded. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah I'm fine," Hermione said with surprise. "Why?"

He shrugged. "You just looked a little bothered by something," he replied.

"Did I?" she asked.

"Yeah, you had on that troubled look you get whenever you're trying to figure out the answer to a difficult question," Harry said.

"What troubled look?" Hermione inquired somewhat defensively.

"The same one you have on right now," Harry replied, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

Hermione brought her hand to her face as if trying to feel the look she currently had on. Then realizing what she was doing she got up and scoffed at Harry. "Maybe I'm just trying to figure out why I'm still sitting here talking to you when I said I was heading up to bed."

"Maybe," said Harry, laughing.

Hermione shook her head, smiling slightly despite herself. "Goodnight, Harry," she said with emphasis, making her way to the staircase.

"Sweet dreams," he called after her.

And with that she made her way to the dormitory. It wasn't very late yet and when she entered the room she found Lavender and Parvati still awake, telling each other in agonizing detail all that had occurred during their winter holiday.

She was hoping to slip into her pyjamas and into bed unnoticed but unfortunately she wasn't successful.

"Hermione!" Lavender called, moving to the edge of her bed. "Is it true what we heard?"

"What is it that you heard, Lavender?" Hermione asked wearily.

"About Ron's dad getting attacked!" she replied. "Seamus heard from Lee Jordan on the train. And Lee is really close friends with the Weasley twins so we figured it must be true but—"

"Yes, it's true," Hermione stated abruptly, wanting to end the conversation.

Both girls gasped.

"How could something like that happen?" Parvati asked with a stunned expression.

Hermione really did not wish to go into detail with her dorm mates. Seeing as it was a matter of the Order, she couldn't divulge much information, anyway. "They're not sure," she stated, "but he's recovered almost completely now."

Lavender and Parvati still looked shocked, but they were able to grasp that Hermione did not wish to elaborate more on the subject. She bid them both goodnight and closed the curtains around her four-poster, and listened as both girls returned to their discussion of the winter holidays.

As Hermione lay there in her bed, she wondered briefly what it would be like if she had never become friends with Harry and Ron. Would she have perhaps made friends with Lavender and Parvati instead? Would she be sitting with them now recounting all the details of her ski trip with her parents?

She contemplated this parallel universe for a long while. Life, she decided, would be so much simpler. All she would have to worry about would be her classes and her homework and people and gossip. Yes, she would hate Umbridge and maybe she would be in the DA (assuming it would still be around) but everything would be so completely different. She would be completely different.

And the more she thought about it, the more she thanked the heavens that she had become friends with Harry and Ron. Sure they'd been through more dangerous things than most Hogwarts students combined, and yes she would probably always have to worry over Harry. But she wouldn't trade it for anything. They were in this together and she would stand by Harry's side through it all. Those two wouldn't last a day without her, anyway, she thought smiling to herself.

Closing her eyes for the night, Hermione continued imagining her parallel universe self until she finally drifted off to sleep.

The next morning at breakfast people were continually approaching Harry to ask whether there would be a DA meeting that night. However, Hermione wished that they could stop because one, it was a little suspicious having members of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw frequently walking over to the Gryffindor table and two, because Harry's mood seemed to be sinking lower and lower each time he had to explain that the meeting would have to be postponed because he had to go to Remedial Potions that night.

"As if it's not bad enough that I have to take extra lessons with Snape…now everyone's going to think I'm some sort of dim-witted idiot," Harry said.

"That's a bit harsh, Harry," Hermione placated.

"Yeah mate, don't worry. No one even said anything about it when you told them," Ron added.

As if on cue, Zacharias Smith appeared out of nowhere cornering Harry in the entrance hall.

"You take Remedial Potions?" asked Smith superciliously. "Good Lord, you must be terrible, Snape doesn't usually give extra lessons, does he?"

As Smith strode away in an annoyingly buoyant fashion, Ron glared after him.

"Shall I jinx him? I can still get him from here," he said, raising his wand and taking aim between Smith's shoulder blades.

Lowering Ron's arm, Hermione looked to see Harry appearing quite dismal. She was just about to offer some words of comfort when she saw Cho approaching hesitantly behind him.

"Hi, Harry," she said.

Harry turned around to find Cho standing there. "Oh…hi," he replied.

Hermione watched as the two stood there for a moment, smiling at each other. Feeling increasingly uncomfortable and knowing they would want to be left alone, she seized Ron above the elbow and dragged him off toward the marble staircase. "We'll be in the library, Harry," she said firmly, knowing that he was too engrossed to even hear her.

Hermione could just hear Cho asking about Harry's Christmas when she and Ron reached the top of the landing. Letting go of his arm, the two walked towards the library.

"What did you do that for?" Ron asked, rubbing his elbow tenderly.

"Well, they obviously wanted some privacy," Hermione replied matter-of-factly.

"You don't know that. And anyways, you didn't have to harass me," he retorted.

"Oh, please I barely touched you," she scoffed.

"Well I bruise easily."

"Well that's not my problem."

They both glared at each other and continued their fuming walk to the library in silence.

Once they reached their destination, however, they were once again back on civil terms.

"Have you started using the homework planner I got you for Christmas yet?" Hermione asked eagerly, taking out her own and opening it up to the current day.

"Study, study, study for that test today, and tomorrow you can rest away!" chanted the book as Hermione scribbled down some reminders.

She looked up at Ron when he didn't answer and saw him shift uncomfortably in his chair.

"Well…you see…the thing is," Ron said, scratching away at the table distractedly, "I might have…left it at Grimmauld Place."

He said the last part very quietly but Hermione heard him nonetheless.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded, "I put a lot of thought and effort into that gift! Please tell me you didn't do it on purpose."

His head was down but Hermione could clearly see his ears turning a bright shade of red.

"You did, didn't you!" she said.

"I'm sorry Hermione!" Ron said almost pleadingly. "Fred and George were taking the mickey out of me for it."

"Ron, when are you going to stop caring about what those two say to you," she asked.

Ron shrugged, still not looking her in the eyes. "I don't," he said half-heartedly.

"Well good," Hermione said, not believing him, "because you shouldn't."

"But it's not like you would have used it anyway," she added as an afterthought, the corner of her mouth upturned ever so slightly.

Ron chuckled. "Me and Harry were actually planning on chucking them in a bin somewhere where you couldn't find them," he admitted.

"Well then!" she said, crossing her arms in a huff. "If either of you think I will be helping you with your homework in the future then you are much mistaken."

Ron winced slightly.

"And it's 'Harry and I'!" she added nastily.

"Harry and who?" said none other than Harry who had just entered the library, positively beaming.

Hermione and Ron looked up in surprise.

"You look cheerful," said Ron leaning back in his chair on two legs and surveying Harry.

"Do I?" said Harry, taking the seat next to Hermione, a smile still plastered on his face.

Hermione recognized that smile, that flush in his cheeks, that bounce to his step. "What did Cho want, then?" she asked casually.

"Who?" replied Harry, turning his face from them and bending down to his bag to retrieve his books.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Cho," she repeated clearly.

"Oh, her," Harry said smiling slightly to himself before turning back to face them again. "Um...nothing."

"Well, I'd hate to see what it would look like if it was something," Ron chuckled.

"It's no big deal," Harry shrugged, not looking either of them in the eye, "I just asked her if she wanted to come into Hogsmeade with me."

"You WHAT?" shouted Ron, the front legs of his chair slamming back onto the ground.

"Shh!" hissed Madam Pince from around the corner.

Ron apologized then turned immediately back on Harry.

"Well? Did she say yes?" Ron demanded.

Hermione looked at Harry, biting her lip, knowing the answer yet waiting for it to be confirmed.

And then Harry nodded.

"Bloody hell..." Ron said to himself, shaking his head and grinning. "Well done, mate. Well done!"

Harry grinned as well, muttering a shy 'thanks' in return.

All of a sudden, Hermione's face felt warm and she wanted nothing more than to leave the suffocating library. There seemed to be a weight inside her stomach that was travelling slowly upwards until it reached the back of her throat and made it painful to swallow. She was breathing slowly through her nose, not allowing it to overcome her. Whatever 'it' was.

She turned her attention back to the conversation at hand, forcing a smile upon her face.

"How did you even do it?" Ron asked with awe in his voice.

Harry shrugged. "She actually sort of brought it up," he admitted. "She mentioned that there was a Hogsmeade trip coming up—"

"On Valentine's Day," Hermione interjected.

"Yeah, that one," said Harry. "And at first I had no clue why she brought it up. But just as she was about to leave I guess it kind of clicked into place and...I dunno...I just asked her."

"Girls," Ron said shaking his head. "Why can't they just say what's on their bloody minds?"

"Exactly!" cried Harry.

Hermione closed her eyes for a moment and then turned to the both of them. "Well she couldn't just come out and say, 'Harry, ask me out'. And it's not like she could ask you out. She knew that you were probably too shy to initiate without knowing for sure whether she would even want to go on a date with you, so she figured she would bring up the topic in hopes that you would realize that she would in fact want to. Luckily you realized it just in time; otherwise you both would have to wait until you plucked up enough courage to actually ask her out. And Merlin knows how long that would have taken by which time Cho would have probably given up and moved on."

Harry and Ron merely gaped at her.

"What?" Hermione said forcefully, daring them to speak.

Ron simply shook his head while Harry sat there rubbing his temples as if suffering from a painful headache.

Hermione sighed. "Come on, we should start heading to class," she said, picking up her bag.

Both boys stood up obediently, but Hermione could clearly hear the words "girls" and "mental" in between Ron's mumbles.

Hermione went through the rest of her classes that afternoon in somewhat of a stupor. Try as she might, she simply could not concentrate. Her mind kept continuously reverting back to Harry and the conversation earlier that day.

She had to admit that at first she was quite surprised when he announced that he had asked Cho out. Yes, she knew that he fancied Cho, but she had never expected Harry to make the first move. But after some thought she realized that he didn't, really...Cho was the one who always sought him out, Cho kissed him under the mistletoe, Cho brought up the Hogsmeade trip to him. And she might as well have just asked him out herself at the rate she was going!

Hearing shuffling around her, Hermione realized that class had just ended, and she had spent a large portion of it lost in her musings of Cho being a man-chaser.

Oops...

"Hermione!" Ron gasped.

"What?" she asked startled.

"You only took half a page of notes!" Ron said in shock.

Harry dropped his bag and swiftly ducked passed Ron to see if it were true. The two of them then looked up at Hermione wearing identical expressions of astonishment.

"Erm..." Hermione said, not looking at either of them. She was an awful liar, but she couldn't very well explain to them what had been occupying her mind for the last forty-five minutes. "I'm not feeling well."

She saw concern flash in Harry's eyes and instantly felt horrible.

"What's wrong? Do you want to go to the hospital wing?" he asked.

"NO."

Both boys looked at her in confusion.

"I mean...no...I feel better now...really," she said trying her best to sound convincing.

"If it's your stomach, I felt a little queasy myself earlier," said Ron, "I knew the porridge tasted a little funny..."

"Yes, that's probably it!" Hermione stated, grabbing her bag and leading them out of the now empty classroom.

"But you didn't have porridge this morning, Hermione," Harry said.

Oh shoot.

"Yes I did..."

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't."

"I could have sworn I did."

"Well you didn't."

"I—"

"Actually, now that I think of it, Hermione, Harry's right, you didn't," interjected Ron.

"NEITHER DID YOU!" Hermione snapped.

There was a pause.

"She's right, Ron...you didn't," Harry said, turning to Ron in confusion.

Hermione groaned loudly before spinning around on her heel and heading straight for the common room.

That was certainly a close call, she thought to herself as she took a seat in the common room.

Harry and Ron joined her soon after, already deep in discussion about the upcoming Quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Slytherin. They barely even stopped to catch their breaths until finally Ron's stomach growled, signalling that it was time to head down to dinner.

As they made their way to the Great Hall, Hermione could sense Harry reverting back to his dejected mood from last night and earlier this morning. He had an hour before his Occlumency lessons began and with each passing minute, the dread written on his face was becoming more and more pronounced.

Finally, it was time for Harry to head down to Snape's office in the dungeons.

He sighed gloomily and pushed his half-eaten plate aside.

"You'll be okay, Harry," Hermione said, trying to convince not only him, but herself as well.

He nodded wordlessly.

"Good luck, mate," said Ron.

"We'll be in the library when you're done," added Hermione.

He merely nodded again and then headed out of the Great Hall.

"Poor bloke," said Ron shaking his head.

Hermione sighed. "Come on. Let's head up to the library."

"But I've already been in there once today," Ron groaned. "I don't know how you stand it, Hermione."

"Oh don't be such a baby," Hermione scoffed. "Don't let your work stack up in piles; it'll only go on for miles and miles!"

Ron stared at her with one eyebrow raised."Was that from your bloody planner?"

"No, I made that one up!" Hermione said excitedly. "It was good though, wasn't it?"

"It was terrible."

Hermione didn't speak to him for the next half hour.

At around half past eight, Harry finally arrived and sat down opposite Ron and Hermione. She was slightly startled by his appearance. He was very white, and his scar seemed to be showing up more clearly than usual.

"How did it go?" she whispered. "Are you all right, Harry?"

"Yeah...fine...I dunno," said Harry impatiently, wincing slightly as if a pain had suddenly shot through him. "Listen...I've just realized something..."

And so he told them all that he had just seen and deduced. That the so called 'weapon' that Sirius had mentioned so long ago was hidden in the Ministry of Magic, itself. In the Department of Mysteries.

They continued discussing this newfound information for some time when Harry suddenly ran both his hands hard over his forehead as though trying to iron it.

"Harry, are you sure you're all right?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"Yeah...fine..." he said, lowering his hands, which Hermione could see were trembling. "I just feel a bit...I don't like Occlumency much..."

"I expect anyone would feel shaky if they'd had their mind attacked over and over again," said Hermione sympathetically. "Look, let's go back to the common room, we'll be a bit more comfortable there."

However when they returned, they found the common room packed and full of shrieks of laughter and excitement as Fred and George were demonstrating their latest bit of joke shop merchandise.

Headless Hats, they were called. Rather ingenious really, Hermione had to admit. Once the person put on the hat their whole head would become invisible.

"How do those hats work, then?" Hermione pondered to herself, too distracted to focus on her homework.

"I'm going to have to do this tomorrow," Harry muttered suddenly, pushing his books he had just taken out of his bag back inside it.

"Well, write it in your homework planner then!" said Hermione encouragingly. "So you don't forget!"

Hermione saw Harry and Ron exchange a look as Harry reached into his bag, withdrew the planner and opened it tentatively.

Well, at least he had the decency to keep it in his bag, Hermione thought to herself, rolling her eyes.

"I think I'll go to bed," said Harry, stuffing the homework planner back into his bag after he finished scribbling down Umbridge's homework.

Hermione noticed that he still looked quite shaky and pale. It didn't look like he would be successful in keeping up his defences tonight. Not with Snape having fiddled with his mind so much...

"Ron...maybe you should go check on Harry," she said. "He didn't look very well..."

Ron nodded and headed up to the boy's dormitory only to return about half an hour later looking quite anxious.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Hermione asked, her tone full of worry.

"It's Harry..." Ron began. "When I went up there he was on the floor...and he was thrashing around and..."

"And what?" Hermione asked fearfully.

"And laughing," stated Ron. "He was laughing and it was scary. It was like he was having a nightmare though. So I tried shaking him awake. But when he finally came to, he yelled out like he was in a lot of pain. It looked like his scar was really hurting him. And then he said..."

"What? What did he say?" Hermione prodded.

"He said that You-Know-Who was really happy about something...the happiest he's ever been since Harry can remember..."

The two sat there for a moment in silence, each absorbed in their own thoughts.

"Do you think he's right, Hermione?" Ron asked apprehensively.

"I...I don't know," she replied. "Ron...Harry's not supposed to see or feel these things. That's what his Occlumency lessons are for."

"But Hermione—"

"No 'buts' Ron," she said. "We weren't supposed to know where the weapon was hidden. Harry has the Department of Mysteries basically mapped out in his head and he shouldn't. This isn't about us being too young to know. It's for our protection, for Harry's protection."

"But why?" Ron asked almost desperately.

Hermione paused before answering. "I don't know, Ron," she replied. "But that's what Dumbledore thinks is best."

Ron didn't seem satisfied with this answer, and if Hermione was being completely honest with herself, neither was she.

Why were these things happening to Harry? Why all of a sudden? Sure he'd had visions last year, but now they seemed to be occurring daily. It just didn't make sense and she hated when things didn't make sense. But above all she was worried about Harry. How much more of this could he handle, she wondered. How much more until he finally broke?

Oh, Harry...

A/N: Well I'm not sure why but this chapter took several writing sessions to complete. But hey, it's the longest yet so woo! There's nothing much else to say except a quick shout out to my fav reviewer Wanderinglands who actually motivated me to keep working on this chapter so yay! I hope you like it!