"I still don't see why you all had to come with me," Harry said. "I'm collecting river water, not dueling with Voldemort."

Ron shrugged. "You never know, mate."

Harry's hand was in his sweatshirt pocket, toying with the Chocolate Frog card. What he really wanted was time to talk to Dumbledore alone, to figure things out for himself, but with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny there, that was never going to happen.

"Is this it?" Ginny squinted. The night fog was settling in, and she carefully toed her way through the long, damp grass, disappearing into the haze.

Harry looked around himself. "This looks like the place from the memory," he said, recognizing the thatched house on the bank and the rickety dock.

Twisting the top off of the jar, Hermione approached Harry. "Well, come on then."

He was about to take it from her when he heard a shriek. "Ginny," he said, and automatically ran to the shore.

Ginny was splashing in the cold water, clinging to the roots of a tree. Something appeared to be pulling at her jeans.

"Gin!" Harry yelled. "What--"

"Grindylows!" she spluttered.

"What are they doing in a river?" Hermione wondered.

Harry drew his wand. "Impedimenta!" he yelled, carefully aiming for the sharp claws of the grindylow tugging at Ginny's leg. "Stupefy!"

"There are too many of them," Hermione said, pulling her wand out.

With no regard to circumstances, Harry dove into the water.

"Harry!" Hermione shrieked, grabbing for her wand. "Ron, help-- Impedimenta!"

Retrieving his wand from his back pocket, Ron ran up to the waterfront, Stunning several grindylows as Harry kicked at the ones who had latched onto Ginny.

Just as they were beginning to overcome the grindylows, a great horse rose from the water, with bulrushes for a mane and glowing green eyes.

"Blimey," Ron gasped, "what is that?"

"It's a kelpie," Hermione told him, her eyes wide. "Harry, look out!"

But the water-demon was already working its magic. Leaving Ginny to herself, Harry floated out into the open water, entranced by the kelpie's eyes.

Hermione thought fast. "We need a bridle."

"Right then, I'll just conjure one up out of midair," he said sarcastically.

"We passed that riding place--" She closed her eyes. "Accio bridle!"

"It's not coming," Ron said, watching wildly as the horse took Harry onto its back. Just as the words escaped his mouth, Hermione was holding a bridle in her hands.

"Harry!" screamed Ginny, rendered helpless by a few grindylows who had survived the attack. Ron tried to Stun them, but his spells only hit the surface of the water.

"Ego locus vos," Hermione intoned, and used her wand to place the bridle over the kelpie's head, just as Harry's head slipped beneath the surface.

Immediately, the kelpie rose to the surface, docile, its head bowed.

"Harry?" Hermione ventured.

He shook his head, as if coming out of a daze. "Thanks," he said.

Hermione grinned. "No problem."

Taking the reins in his hand, he urged the kelpie towards Ginny, letting it take the last grindylow into its mouth as Ron pulled his sister out of the water. He jumped off, tumbling onto the shoreline, and Hermione helped him up.

"We've got to get you two someplace warm," she said, "or you're going to get hypothermia."

Ginny peeled off her wet sweater, revealing her Holyhead Harpies tank top, and wrapped up in Ron's proffered jacket.

"Do you want my sweater?" Hermione said to Harry, after scooping up a jarful of water and tightening the lid.

"No," he replied, "thanks. I'll be okay." Immediately, he reached inside his sweatshirt pocket, and breathed a sigh of relief-- the card was still there. He felt, that if he could just keep Dumbledore with him, that he might just make it out of this whole thing okay.

"Can' believe you seen a real kelpie," said Stan Shunpike as the four of them boarded the Knight Bus the next morning.

"Bloody hell," Ron said, "how'd you know?"

Stan shrugged. "You tell the 'ousekeeper at the Leaky Cauldron, she tells old Tom, Tom tells the barmaid, an' the barmaid tells me." He leaned over to Harry. "You as' me, she's got a real thing for me." He winked.

Hermione stifled a laugh.

"'Choo laughin' at?" he said sharply to Hermione, who quickly sobered up.

"Nothing," she said demurely, and stepped onto the bus.

"Whereabouts you goin'?" asked Stan.

"King's Cross," Ginny said.

"King's Cross. Take 'er away, Ern," Stan said, clapping the driver on the shoulder.

With a moan, Ron put a hand to his head. "Couldn't we have just taken a taxi?"

Ginny giggled. "I've never ridden the Knight Bus before," she said.

They made it to King's Cross without Ron getting sick, though he came very close several times, and boarded the Hogwarts Express.

"I've never seen it so bare," Ginny remarked.

"Well, it's usually just Muggle-borns who live near London that take it during the holidays," Hermione noted. "Plus, there aren't as many students enrolled at Hogwarts this year, and a lot of parents wanted their kids to stay--" She broke off, seeing Draco Malfoy enter a compartment alone.

Ron's face morphed into a thundercloud. "Not going to go sit with your little boyfriend?" he said irritably.

Hermione wasn't paying attention. She was thinking of the way Draco had kissed her in the courtyard-- it had been electrifying, it had been full of something at once beautiful and frightening, and she longed for more.

"Would you excuse me?" she said, almost breathlessly, and slipped out of the compartment.

"I'll never understand," Ginny said.

Harry shrugged. "I don't think it would matter if we did."

"Hi," Hermione said carefully, edging into Draco's compartment.

He looked up. "Hi."

"How come you're not at Hogwarts?" she asked, sitting down across from him. "Aren't you afraid that--"

"No," he said sharply, "I'm not."

"It's okay if you are."

"Well I'm not," he repeated.

"Okay." They sat in silence for a moment as the train began to move.

"So..."

"What?" Draco's face was sour.

"Fine." She turned to go.

He shot to his feet and caught her by the shoulders. "Don't." He paused, sighing. "I am afraid, Hermione. I just-- I don't want it to take me over." He sank back down into his seat.

This time, she sat next to him. "I want you to kiss me again," she said shyly.

An impish smile made its way onto Draco's lips. "Of course you do. It's all you've been thinking about the whole holiday, isn't it?" He plunged his fingers into her thick hair.

"No," she said automatically. "I actually did have to fight a kelpie, and several grindylows, and..."

He pulled back, much to Hermione's chagrin. "Kelpies and grindylows?"

"Yes," she said. "They were in the Thames when we--" She stopped short, wondering if it would be a betrayal of Harry to tell him what they were doing at the river.

Draco, however, didn't seem to care. "If he's got control of the sea creatures now--" He looked down at her. "That's not good." His gaze drifted to the window, where tiny houses and big fields were whizzing past. "But let's worry about it later. I haven't given you any Christmas present." He leaned close to her; she could smell his cologne, citrus and spice.

But Hermione turned away. She needed to know one thing. "Whose side are you on, Draco? Who are you going to fight for?"

Draco regarded her with a calm gaze. "You."

Something in his eyes made her believe he wasn't lying. "So about that Christmas present..." Blushing furiously, she tilted her face up to his.

He kissed her. "You know," he said quietly, "I haven't got you a Christmas present since I've known you."

"Birthday presents, either," she whispered, as his lips brushed hers.

"Halloween," he said with another kiss, "St. George's Day... May Day..."

"You have a lot to make up for," she replied with a smile, as the landscape faded into a blur behind them.