Author's Note:

So here is chapter 12. I hope you somewhat enjoy it. :) I am still delighted over every review.

Luna Lovegood woke up screaming.

Trying to normalise her breathing, she wasted no time jumping out of her bed and heading towards her father's bedroom. Swinging the door open, she was met with a confused Xenophilius Lovegood, who was looking at her with a concerned gaze.

"Daddy, I need one of our owl's," she exclaimed, still out of breath, the contents of her dream at the forefront of her mind.

"Another vision, dear?" her father asked, to which she nodded. "Tracey is the fastest. The Quibbler won't be sent for another hour or so, so feel free to take it."

Luna didn't waste any time and made her way towards the owlery, grabbing parchment, feather and ink on her way up the stairs. Visions were nothing uncommon for her, she had had them since her mother had used that ritual on her dying in the process. But since about a year and a half ago, these visions had changed from random insights about people's future to the future of a few select individuals.

Harry Potter was in most of them, a girl named Hermione, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and often times, herself. The visions weren't set in stone, they changed frequently and most of them were far into the future, but this one – this one left her with a feeling of unavoidable urgency.

Quickly, she wrote the letter and attached it to the owl her father had recommended. She watched it fly off and hoped with all her heart that she hadn't been too late.

-o-o-

Harry was awoken by someone calling his name. Slowly opening his eyes, he could see the concerned faces of Remus and Sirius hovering over him.

"Harry…" Remus said at a loss of words. Quickly taking in his surroundings, Harry noticed that he was lying on the ground next to the sofa, the empty bottle of Firewhiskey next to him. He averted his gaze, not daring to look either of them into the eyes. It had been a long time since he had fallen into a pit so dark that he had drunken himself into unconsciousness. He had hoped that he was over that particular bad habit.

The next thing he could feel was his godfathers arm wrapping around him. Harry let him, and a moment later he was clinging to his godfather, tears streaming down his face. "I'm sorry…" he mumbled, while Sirius gently stroked his hair.

"Don't be," Sirius said into his ear, "It's okay."

Before Harry could retort he was interrupted by an owl angrily tapping his beak at the window next to them. Remus walked over there to let it in, taking the letter from the owl and putting it on the table. "This can wait," he said, while Sirius helped Harry sit on the couch. The owl, however, didn't seem to agree, angrily flying at Remus and screeching into his ear.

"Remus give me the letter, please," Harry said tiredly. His head was aching, and his body felt like he had been run over by a horde of Hippogryphs, but he had learned to not ignore letters when owls acted that way. Most of the time, it meant that whoever wrote them felt like the letter was urgent.

Remus sighed, handing Harry the letter who gave it a few waves with his hands to check for hidden spells. When none came up, he opened it and began to read.

Hello Harry Potter,

Hermione might be in grave danger. Someone is coming for her.

Luna Lovegood

Harry didn't waste a breath springing up from the couch and throwing the letter behind him. He didn't start thinking on how Luna knew him, and on how she might have come to that conclusion. He didn't think about what would happen if it might be a trap. The only thought in his mind was 'I need to save Hermione'.

As he sprung to his feet, his vision blurred for a moment and he needed Sirius to steady him. "Remus!" he exclaimed "You need to apparate us to the Grangers!"

"Wha-" Remus started to ask, but Harry interrupted him harshly.

"We need to move - now!"

-o-o-

Quirrell was lazily gazing at the house in front of him. It had been surprisingly easily getting the mudblood's address from the school record. His master had been surprised when he had told him about the girl's talent and power, at first believing he was exaggerating. His lord then took some of his gathered power to wake from his slumber and observe her in class, and soon after that he instructed Quirrell to get close to her. The Dark Lord had been furious with him after his failure, punishing him for hours, and in his fury exhausted himself. Now he had been asleep for weeks, but Quirrell would not fail the Dark Lord again. He would take matters into his own hands, and when his master would wake up, he would be rewarded for his success.

He walked towards the house, opening the door with a swift motion of his wand. Walking inside, he made his way through the first floor, turning to the left where he was greeted by the sight of the mudblood with her parents at the dining table, drenched in silence.

The mudblood was the first to see him, her eyes opening in shock. Quirrell didn't have time to wonder about the strangeness of that reaction to the presence of a teacher, before the girl let out a scream of fear, jumping up from the table. The next second, spells were flying towards him, which he batted away easily. Nonetheless, he was surprised to find duelling spells ranging from first to third-year material leaving the girl's wand. The muggle's in the meantime had started shouting at him, but while he still batted away the girl's assault, he quickly shot two body binds towards them both.

Fun for later.

"As fun as this is, girl, let's cut this short." He started casting himself now, and again was surprised at the girl shielding his first two spells, dodging the third, but then only getting hit by the fourth.

"You know, my master wasn't very happy about your little show-off antics. A mudblood pretending to be more powerful than all of the first-year students combined? That's just not something we can let pass."

The girl was glaring at him with a look between anger and fear, which made Quirrell's heart feel all fuzzy. With a wave of his wand, he cancelled the part of the bind keeping her from speaking.

"My parents… please… don't hurt them," she asked with a surprisingly steady voice.

"So young and already so noble… tell me girl, why should I do that?"

She didn't waste a breath before answering, "I will join your master. I will take the mark."

Quirrell looked surprised. How did she know who he was working for? That would explain her reaction earlier. But that was what his master had been trying to accomplish with him approaching her. Maybe his master had acted with him unconscious and already started turning her? It would explain why he was too exhausted to make his presence known for several weeks. If that was the case, he really dodged a bullet here. Killing someone the Dark Lord had already started working on… he would not survive that.

"Has my master already approached you? What does he look like?" he asked, carefully keeping his tone neutral.

"Yes," she answered, "I was… unsure. The Dark Lord is currently residing at the back of your head."

While normally, only the Dark Lord was able to give someone the mark, Quirrell had limited access to his master's magic through the possession. With a wave of his wand, the spell holding the girl in place was cancelled, and her wand was flying into his hand.

"Hold out your arm, girl."

She did so, her arm shivering even before his wand touched her skin and the sleeve of her sweater was cut through.. When he intoned the spell, she started to scream, but managed to keep her arm outstretched for the whole duration, which more than impressed Quirrell. The skull burned its way through her skin, slowly, before a snake started withering out of it. Her whole forearm had turned an angry red, while tears of pain were streaming from the girl's face.

"HERMIONE!"

Just as he finished, a spell hit him in the back, flinging him into the opposite wall. He cursed himself for not having paid attention. His whole body ached, and he was sure he had broken a few bones on the impact. Something wet was dripping down his face, and as he tried to lift his head through the pain, the last thing he saw was the angry visage of the Potter boy before another spell hit him, and everything turned to black.

-o-o-

"Hermione, oh god…" Harry's gaze was fixated on the fresh mark on Hermione's arm. He rushed over to her, as she fell forward, unconscious into his embrace. Remus stiffly stood behind them, just as horrified. Something at the edge of his vision momentarily deterred his focus from Hermione, as something started rising from Quirrell's still body. Harry reacted quickly, forcing an illusion on himself and Remus, making them look like Aurors.

The spirit of the Dark Lord slowly detached itself from his host, taking in the surrounding scene. His face turned angry at the still Quirrell, before a small twitch of a smile echoed over his ghostly visage when he noticed Hermione's mark. Harry knew he wouldn't be able to stop the shade from fleeing, and so he simply feigned surprise, before letting Voldemort escape through the wall behind him.

"Harry, the trace is still on Hermione's wand. The ministry should be on its way," Remus said carefully, laying a hand on Harry's shoulder.

Harry took a moment to formulate a plan inside his head. "Take Hermione and her parents to Godrics Hollow. I will take care of them."

Remus looked as if he wanted to argue, but then quickly took the stunned couple on one hand, as well as the unconscious Hermione on the other, before vanishing.

Harry quickly got to work. He wouldn't have much time to set up the illusion necessary, but he hoped it would be enough. His form morphed into death eater ropes, transfiguring the dead Quirrell's ones in a more permanent manner. A few quick spells wrecked the room, as if a prolonged battle had been fought. A few injuries were added to his disguise, and what seemed to be a wand appeared in his hand. Just as he finished, he was greeted by two 'pops' and what he assumed were two Aurors behind him. Acting as if he had been speaking to his comrade, he let the men behind him catch the rest of his sentence. "That's what you get for letting them flee, you traitor."

"Drop your wand!" he heard someone shout behind his back. Slowly, Harry turned around, shooting the two Aurors a smile.

"Of course," he said, slowly letting his hands rise into the air, then dropping the wand to the ground. As he saw the Aurors slowly lowering their wands as well, a small twitch of his hand resulted in something akin to a flashbang going off between them, before he started a complicated chain apparition across the country to lose their tail.

-o-o-

When Harry opened the door to their home, he could already hear the shouting. He quickly made his way over to the living room, where currently Dan and Emma Granger were arguing with Remus and Sirius. He could see Hermione looking distressed between the four, as if she wanted to intervene but couldn't quite get herself to do it. She was sitting on the couch, clearly still extremely exhausted from receiving the mark.

"You said you would keep her SAFE," Dan had dropped all pretence of civility at this point. And when his eyes saw Harry at the doorway, his anger rose to all new heights.

"You! The crazy wizard was there because of you, wasn't he?! How dare yo-"

"Shut up!" Hermione's father looked like a deer in headlights as his daughter's icy sharp voice cut him off. "How dare you blame Harry for this? This had nothing to do with him. Quirrell was there because of my own foolish actions. He was there because I had to make a big show to impress Malfoy. Harry is the only reason you are still alive, so stop. shouting. at. him."

Mr. Granger was clearly at a loss for words or actions, so he just stood there as Hermione once again broke into tears, ran over to Harry and clung to him like someone drowning would cling to a lifebelt.

"This isn't your fault, Hermione," Harry quietly said to her, while gently stroking her hair. "You couldn't have predicted such a reaction from Quirrell, and I am pretty sure he didn't do it on his master's orders. Voldemort wouldn't have squashed his chance at a new body for… this." He grimaced at seeing her angry-red arm exposed through the destroyed sleeve.

"You three should head back home soon," he addressed the Granger's "The ministry employees will ask what happened. This is the official story: You got attacked by two wizards in death eater robes. They started to argue and fight, which is how you were able to flee. Don't mention us and don't mention the mark."

"What, now you want us t-" Dan's protest were cut off by an angry Sirius who shoved him into the wall behind him.

"Not one more word, Mr. Granger. Did you know the fact that I was in prison for years for killing thirteen muggles in a single night? Do you want to make it fourteen?"

Mr. Granger gave a fearful shake of his head, and Sirius roughly let him go, before turning to Hermione. "Hermione, please take your parents home, would you? We will talk tomorrow."

Hermione reluctantly let go of Harry before motioning her shocked parents to follow her. Before leaving, she shot Harry a short look. "Please come early," She whispered.

Harry let himself fall on the couch as soon as the three had left the house. Sirius sat beside him with a sigh. "I know you would have liked to keep her here, but it would be far too suspicious having them missing for too long. Especially with the ministry not being able to track them."

"Did you have to threaten them like that?" Harry asked, letting his head fall into his hands.

"They will come around. Hermione will have told them the emptiness of that thread as soon as they had left. But I don't think you would have been able to sit through any more arguing right now."

Harry just shook his head.