A/N: I don't own Harry Potter.

Hermione's Secret

Ella ran through the corridors trying not to hit any of the students that were already on their way to Hogsmeade. She wouldn't be surprised if her friends had already left, but part of her wanted to check before she went there herself. There was always a chance they could have stayed behind and waited. In fact, knowing their loyalty in general they'd be more likely to stay than leave her behind.

She was thrilled to see that her intuition paid off. Angelina, Alicia, Katie, Lee, Fred, and George all stood in front of the Fat Lady waiting for Ella to arrive. They smiled shyly when they saw her and as they saw Ella looking truly happy they began to relax as well.

"What'd he say?" Lee asked.

Her smile faltered a bit, "He's not staying. He's too afraid that he'll hurt someone and I guess if he really doesn't want to stay then that's his choice."

The others nodded slightly forlorn before George rallied, "Well, c'mon then. Let's go cheer up with some butterbeers and sweets from Hogsmeade. No use moping over something we can't fix. We might as well enjoy the weather while it lasts!" The group smiled and began their trek to the wizarding community. It was a truly beautiful day out. Ella could only marvel at how wonderful the weather was after the events of the night before. It seemed slightly ironic to her, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Good weather was better than what her thoughts about the evening reflected. She needed some happiness in her life. It couldn't be all storms, all the time.

As they walked Fred asked Ella, "Are you sure you're alright? I know that he was one of your favorite professors and that no one is really going to compare, but I just wanted to make sure you were going to be fine."

Ella smiled, "I think I'll be fine. Who knows? Maybe I'll like next year's professor even more. Maybe they'll be able to see the future through dreaming and can explain everything I don't know to me because I honestly can't understand why I can and can't do certain things."

"I wouldn't get your hopes up there," Fred laughed. "You're the only one special enough for your kind of ability."

She paused, "You really think I'm special?"

Fred struggled to find the right wording for a moment, "Of course I do…I mean, no one else can see the future like you can. We all think you're special!"

"Right…" Ella mumbled feeling slightly let down. She didn't want Fred to think she was special just because of an ability she had no control over. Fred, on the other hand, was silently cursing himself for being such an idiot and saying that to her. She was special in hundreds of ways from how brilliant she was to how she could brighten up a room just by being there. Her gift made her special, but it was far from the only thing to do so. Nothing in the world was as special as Ella and some stupid future-seeing ability didn't make Fred think that way.

The two of them split up slightly for the rest of the walk to Hogsmeade. Ella in an effort to keep her spirits up and Fred in an effort to hide from his poor choice of words. The rest of the group seemed almost oblivious to the event except for George who remained keenly aware of everything that conspired between his best friend and his twin. George could have sworn that if he had a knut for every instance these two avoided their inevitable (in his mind at least) relationship he'd be able to buy five joke shops by now.

George stepped behind his twin who just finished talking with Katie and slapped the back of his head. Fred's hand leaped to the spot on reflex and he glared at his twin.

"What was tha…" One look at George's pointed look changed Fred's direction. "Don't give me that look. I know I'm an idiot."

"So fix it…?"

"George, it isn't that simple!" Fred huffed to his twin.

He shook his head, "You know the two of us think extremely similarly in almost all ways. I'll admit, you come up with ideas a little quicker and you're certainly better at charms than I am, but I can certainly see what you need to do in this situation and I can't understand why you can't!"

Fred groaned, "Sure, I'm better at those things, good for me. You, on the other hand, know how to deal with relationships it would seem and I'm clueless."

The twin laughed, "Know how to deal with relationships? Are you kidding? I'm as clueless as you are with all these emotions and whatnot. I can just see when something is as clear as day, like how much you and Ella like each other."

"We don't like each other. Not in the way you keep trying to push us to…I mean I do, but what would she see in me? There's so many better options out there. Besides, what if she just sees me as a brother or something? That'd be logical, were always around each other and she looks at you like that," Fred tried rationalizing.

George shook his head, "No, mate. The look she gives you isn't one for a brother. If you don't move soon your window of opportunity is going to close."

Fred looked up at the group as they just reached the edge of Hogsmeade. The twins had fallen in the back of the group so no one would over hear them. He could easily spot Ella in their group of friends. She was laughing at something Lee told her along with the other girls, and her eyes sparkled with that joy she kept deep down. Ella was completely at ease with them –they were her friends, why wouldn't she be? Everything in this moment was perfect and calm. No one could mess things up because friends aren't complicated…relationships are complicated. Fred had heard stories from Bill and Charlie about friend groups at odds with each other because of couples and he couldn't imagine putting anyone through that in his own group of friends.

"I can't do it, George," he whispered defeated. "I can't mess things up for anyone in this group and I don't want to hurt Ella."

"You wouldn't, if anything you'd make her even happier than she is now," George gently tried convincing.

"She looks perfectly happy now," Fred argued.

George shrugged, "Maybe, but you could make her happier."

Fred looked back towards their friends who were currently headed to the Three Broomsticks, "I only want her to be happy, but I'm prepared for that to be because of someone other than me."

George carefully placed a hand on his twin's shoulder, "I know, but you're looking over yourself in the process of making sure she's happy. I know you can make her happy once you realize you're good enough for her."

Fred laughed, "A Weasley twin getting a confidence lesson from someone…is the world exploding?"

"Not yet," George said joining in the laughter. "What's going on there?"

Fred looked over in the direction George had to see that a student was running to their friends –Ella to be specific. They ran to catch up and see what was happening. Also to intervene if necessary.

"You're Ella, aren't you?" The girl said. She looked older than anyone in the group and had a Head Girl Badge on her Ravenclaw robes.

Ella nodded, "And you're Penelope Clearwater, right?"

She smiled, "Yes, we were Petrified at the same time last year, but that's not why I'm talking to you. Dumbledore wanted you to meet him in his office. I was hoping to catch you near your dorm, but I didn't see you and assumed you must have gone to Hogsmeade already so I went down here to find you."

"Does he need me now, or am I allowed to enjoy some time here?"

Penelope frowned, "It was definitely an immediate need. Sorry Ella."

"That's alright, you were just doing your job," Ella responded trying to sound more upbeat.

"Alright, well I'm going to go back to Percy. The two of us deserve a break after those N.E.W.T.s," Penelope told her. With her work done, she turned to go back to her friends and boyfriend.

Ella sighed and turned to her friends, "It looks like I'm not going to get a final Hogsmeade trip after all. Will you guys get me a few sweets from Honeydukes?"

"Course," Angelina replied. Ella quickly turned around and began heading back to the castle as her friends moved to go and enjoy their time at Hogsmeade.

By the time she reached Dumbledore's office, Ella was out of breath and getting frustrated. She'd already been tired beforehand from being awake all night –not to mention the events themselves being quite stressful. She could feel logic leaving her brain out of exhaustion and being replaced by her emotions. Most of her emotions were heightened by her lack of logic to school them anyway. Unfortunately, the main emotions she was experiencing had nothing to do with happiness.

"Sorry to pull you away from Hogsmeade, Miss Worthington," Dumbledore told her as she entered into the office she spent way too much time in.

Ella sighed, "It's alright, I should have known we'd need to talk at some point and I suppose sooner is better than later."

Dumbledore nodded pensively, "How is your arm?"

She looked down at it and shrugged, "It could be a lot worse. The House Elves did a nice job cleaning it up and making sure it won't be a noticeable scar. I appreciate their help and that they didn't ask questions."

"Do I need to take the same precautions with you as I did with Remus?"

Ella's eyes widened, "Oh no, I wasn't bit or anything. There won't be any wolfish tendencies from me."

"Is there something I need to know then?"

"I think this might be on a more confidential basis, sir," Ella told him. She was relieved that he merely nodded.

"So, you knew that Sirius was innocent and that Pettigrew was still alive this whole time. You knew the entire story of what happened when the four boys were in school. Every time I asked you what was going on in regards to the future you told me that you didn't know, which was obviously a lie. Sirius's story lined up with the one in your letter. Everything was the exact same. You knew quite a bit. There is only one thing I have to say to all of this," Dumbledore paused and Ella winced at whatever venomous phrase was about to be uttered. "I'm sorry."

Ella's head snapped up to look at the Headmaster, "What?"

The man smiled, "I told you I'm sorry, and I dare say that wasn't something you were expecting, was it?" Ella shook her head. "I assumed so. Nevertheless, that is what I have to say about the ordeal. I instilled the fear in you of changing the future. When you were eleven years old I said that I feared what would happen if you changed the course of what was to come. That's a lot of responsibility to put on an eleven year old who's never known the Wizarding World before that year. From that moment on I could see your fear growing, but until recently I never saw it as a bad thing. I wanted to rid you of the curse because I felt like you still had a healthy amount of awareness of the dangers your power possessed. I never realized until this year how deep of a cord I struck when it came to your fears. Even when you decided to revoke the curse, I couldn't convince you to tell me the truth."

"I think we made a mistake in fearing what I could change in the future. The more I look back on the past the more I realize that hiding the future was a mistake. I should have embraced my ability from the start and stopped the future from turning out this way. I know that I couldn't have possibly seen the outcome of fearing my power back then, but in hindsight I believe we may have been wrong," Ella explained to Dumbledore.

"You may be right, and you may be wrong. The trick with the future is that we do not know whether the actions we take will have a positive or negative consequence in the future, and even more so, we don't know if it could turn sour later on down the road. We cannot change the past, but we can work to build a better future."

She nodded looking up at the professor, "We're only human. We both made the wrong choice, but I want to make it right. I've screwed everything up even though I had the chance to fix it months ago. I was just too afraid of someone being hurt down the road that I couldn't bear to alter anything now. I was wrong though. I messed up and kept things a secret that I shouldn't have. Now I'm going to fix it. Voldemort is rising and I'm going to do my part to fix that."

For the first time in her four years at Hogwarts, Ella saw true surprise on Dumbledore's face, "What was that?" His voice was grave.

"Pettigrew escaped last night and he's going to find Voldemort. I knew he had the power to do that before, but I didn't want it to ever happen. Last night I saw that he succeeded in finding his master, but I don't know where he found him. I don't know how much time I have before Pettigrew can find Voldemort and start nursing him back to health. I wish I could find where they are, but there's nothing specific enough to pinpoint where they are. I need to find them though. He'll rise again –it was in my vision yesterday. He'll rise again and be even more lethal than before. And Pettigrew knows my secret. Pettigrew knows I can see the future." Panic laced Ella's words as she finally confided her worst fear to the Headmaster.

Dumbledore's stance displayed nothing but calmness and confidence, "Don't worry about it, you'll be safe in Hogwarts. If Voldemort does rise, we'll know. You're too young to worry about this kind of situation. Is there anything else you've seen?"

"I've seen Voldemort rise. I've heard him trying to coax me into telling him what I see about the future. We need another professor like Lupin –someone who can actually teach us. If we don't learn how to defend ourselves now I shudder to think what will happen in the future," Ella responded trying not to sound miffed at Dumbledore's attempt to keep her out of this. "Not only do other students need to know, but I need to know too. If we can't stop Pettigrew from finding his master, and I have a sinking suspicion we won't be able to –I have to be able to defend myself. I can't be a sitting duck. Professor, what happens if Voldemort decides I'm a valuable weapon and tries to come after me? I'm fifteen, I don't think I know enough spells to escape him if I ever needed to."

"We will not allow you to be taken by Voldemort. He hasn't risen yet, and we'll do our best to prevent it. Everything you said I'm taking into consideration. I promise you, as long as I live, you'll be safe from Voldemort," Dumbledore told her solemnly. "Now, you'd better get some rest. If you see anything more tell me. Even if it's over the summer, send an owl. Your visions may be imperative at this moment. I know I've warned you about this before, but I need you to not tell another soul about your abilities now more than ever. No one else needs to find out what you can do. It'll only become more dangerous for you." Ella nodded knowing that she wasn't needed any longer nor was her help wanted.

Ella slowly walked through the empty halls and back to the Common Room. With a majority of the students at Hogsmeade, Ella didn't have to worry about being stopped or talking with anyone. Her friends would be enjoying the day at different shops and Ella wanted to use that to her advantage. She quickly gave the Fat Lady the password and headed up the staircase to her dormitory. Ella was asleep before her head even touched her pillow. The thoughts of Voldemort and Pettigrew disappeared as the fog of sleep finally clouded her mind.

A/N: Sorry that it's a bit short. Only one chapter left! The next installment will most likely go by "Goblet of Fears", how does that sound? I hope you liked the chapter. Remember to please review...it's nearly finals week and I need something to keep me going! :)