Disclaimer: I lied, I feel obligated to do this before every chapter. I do not own Harry Potter, or anything to do with it. Other than this story of course, but none of the characters are mine.
AN: I probably shouldn't have rated this M, I am truthfully just writing as I go along. If you are reading this only for the M rating, please don't be disappointed if nothing 'happens'. If anybody wants to give me some ideas, that would be fantastic. Thanks to Irix for my first review. I love when people review, it makes me happy.
Chapter 2:This was a sacrifice he had to make.
Harry was sitting in the common room, pondering about the Quidditch practice.
'Ginny will have to play seeker until I get my mind straight' Harry thought, sinking inside. Quidditch was the only thing he had at Hogwarts now.
But who would fill in at seeker?
He remembered Dean had a good tryout, maybe he should ask him. Or Demelza Robbins, she wasn't too bad last year.
Harry looked around the common room sulkily, making sure there was no one around.
Harry got up, tiptoes up the stairs quietly, as to not wake anybody up.
He crossed the room to retrieve the Maurauders Map, discovering that it wasn't there.
'I must have left it in my hideout, along with the invisibility cloak,' Harry said with a sinking feeling in his stomach.
How was he supposed to sneak all the way down to the dungeons with Filch and McGonagall looking for students.
He would just have to risk it.
Harry tiptoed back down the stairs, not paying much attention to his surroundings.
He crossed the common room, and pushed open the portrait.
He stepped out into the unknown for the first time since third year.
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Hermione sat awake on her bed, waiting for the clock to hit 11:00.
She would check on Harry every half hour and if he wasn't in his bed or the common room, she would look for him on the stolen Maurauders Map.
When the clock said 11, she snuck downstairs, discovering Harry wasn't there.
She tiptoed upstairs and checked Harry's bed.
With a sinking feeling, she discovered he wasn't there.
She raced back downstairs, laid the map out on the table and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
A map of Hogwarts revealed itself to her, and feeling a strange sense of foreboding, threw the stolen Invisibilty Cloak over her.
She stepped out of the common room, checking that the coast was clear and set of towards the second floor, where Harry was hiding from Mrs. Norris who was prowling the hallway.
She ran down the nearest flight of stairs behind the tapestry on the other side of the school. This took her to the fourth floor.
Checking the map again, the coast was clear. The nearest teacher was on the third floor, Professor McGonagall.
Harry was still hiding from Mrs. Norris on the second floor.
She sprinted towards the nearest stairs, nearly losing the cloak, and nearly falling down the stairs, then tiptoed down the hallway.
There was an ominous glow in the distance, which must be McGonagall.
She wasn't paying attention to where she was going and crashed into a vase.
The crashing noise was probably heard by everybody on the entire floor, ghosts and humans alike. Hermione felt a sinking feeling realizing there was only one way out of this.
Professor McGonagall was on the scene in a flash, her nostrils flaring with suspicion.
Nearly Headless Nick floated to the scene as well.
"Nick, search all of the rooms for any students, I will patrol the hallways," McGonagall said.
Hermione was already tiptoeing back towards the stairs, paying very close attention to where she was going.
When she was safely back in the common room, she checked the map.
She didn't see Harry anywhere on it.
'Maybe he's in the Forbidden Forest,' she thought to herself.
She wandered back up to her bed, tucking the cloak and the map safely into her trunk.
She crawled into bed, thinking about the close encounter with McGonagall, and wondering where Harry could have gone.
She was asleep within minutes, dreaming of being caught by various teachers, with Harry in the background disappearing.
She didn't like the sight of him leaving, it left an empty feeling inside.
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"Ron, have you seen my cloak or my map, I can't find them anywhere," Harry said feeling desperate.
He loved to look at it during his alone time, to make sure she was still there, in her bed every night.
"No I haven't, maybe you left them lay around someplace, mate," Ron said with a quizzical look.
Harry never loses his cloak or his map, they are his lifelines.
After an hour of searching everybody's trunks, they gave up, hoping they would turn up someplace.
They went down to breakfast, Harry was sick of listening about how hungry Ron was.
He was always hungry, always.
They joined Hermione near the middle of the table and Ron wasted no time loading up his plate with pancakes and kippers.
Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out the map and the invisibility cloak.
"You left them lay in the common room last night," Hermione said with a false stern look, "you really should take better care of your things."
Harry lightened up immediately, stashing the items in his bag.
"Thanks, Hermione. You know, you really are the best," Harry said with a grin.
"Don't let it happen again, I don't think you will be as lucky next time. What if a first year had found them?" Hermione said.
"He would be the luckiest midget ever, do you know how much he could get by selling those?" Ron said, obviously thinking of a life that didn't involve being poor.
"I would die, I need these," Harry said gesturing towards his bag.
"By the way, when is the next Quidditch practice?" Ron asked with anticipation.
"Oh, that reminds me," Harry said with a sinking feeling, "you are going to be the stand in captain, I need to gather myself before I can play Quidditch again. Plus, McGonagall won't let me play until I get my marks up."
"But who will take your place?" Ron asked, also with a sinking feeling.
"I was thinking Ginny could, and Demelza could take her place," Harry said.
"Ooh, yay! Now I have somebody to talk to other than Hagrid. I'm sick of hearing about Grawp," Hermione said lighting up.
Harry lit up inside too, finally some alone time with her.
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Ron was still feeling gloomy all morning, but lightened up a bit when he heard Pansy still had a pug nose.
"I can keep ripping on her then!" He said with a lopsided grin.
"Don't rip too hard or you'll tear her a new one," Harry said laughing, "I don't think anybody would like a moping Slytherin."
They were heading to the final class of the day. It was the day before the Quidditch match.
The school was brimming with excitement. The Gryffindors were breaking into chants of 'Weasley is our King' so much that Filch tried to get it banned again.
"Too bad he doesn't have Umbridge anymore," Harry said, "I think he had fallen in love with her. It's kind of hard to believe.
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Ron had peaceful dreams of Gryffindor winning 1000-0, Harry on the other hand wasn't in his bed.
He was in his hideout.
Hermione was pondering on how to approach the problem at hand during the Quidditch match tomorrow.
This had to be done, she had to do it. Even if it makes her feel worse than she did when she was away from him for the entire summer.
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AN: Once again, I LOVE REVIEWS! And any ideas you have are appreciated, you will get mentioned of course!