Disclaimer: I don't own it.

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Chapter Two: Practice Makes Perfect

"This is hopeless!" Hermione screamed as she threw the book down on the table in front of her. "There is not a single way that we can kill that monster. He's just going to keep getting stronger and stronger!"

Harry watched the outburst with a smirk. "Hermione, you're the one who says that we 'must never give up' and 'that perseverance will always win in the end'. Are you going to admit that you were actually wrong?"

Hermione glared at the boy before storming out, but she called back that she'd be back in five minutes. Harry took that time to glance across the room at Hope, who was curled up in a chair with a book in her lap, taking notes.

"Find anything interesting?" He asked, walking over to her. He held back a sigh of frustration as he saw her tense up yet again.

"Maybe, I'm not sure yet," she said, taking her attention off of whatever she was reading to look at him. "What about you guys? Hermione give up?"

Harry laughed. "Did you ignore her outburst?"

Hope looked at him with a weird expression. "Sorry. Lately I'll go off into a different place when I'm reading or studying. Do I need to go find her?"

Harry shook his head. "Draco is sure to run into her since she was storming toward the kitchen, and that's where he went to get snacks and drinks."

Hope nodded and smiled, happy for her best friend and brother and the relationship they seemed to be creating. "I'm sure she'll be fine then. What have you come up with?"

Harry made a face before moving back to a pile of parchment and taking a sheet of paper off the top. He handed it to her without a word.

Hope read what he had written. "None of them will work."

Harry sighed. "I know, Hope. All of them require that he already be soulless, but then it's easier to just cast the killing curse."

"So I have to find a way to rid him of his soul, which has been split into several pieces, and if I don't, everyone dies and the demise of the wizarding world is my fault. That's a great future to look forward to."

"I'm sorry Hope. It's the only way there is right now."

Hope took that in and closed her eyes before nodding. Harry watched worriedly for another emotion to come on her face, but she just returned to her books and notes.

Hope was wearing shorts and a halter top as she dodged yet another curse. They had been practicing for almost two hours, and the sweat covered girl was about to pass out from exhaustion and injuries.

Hope looked around for another curse and let herself relax, hoping the session was over. Her father had decided that they needed more practice on physical and magical fighting and defense, so everyone teamed up against her or Harry and she had to knock all of them down before the session was over. Typically, that didn't happen before everyone got tired and gave up.

Hope crouched down to the ground, reminding herself who was out there in the trees: the Weasley twins, Hermione, Draco, her father, and three aurors, plus Harry, all against her. At least they seemed to be ready to give up.

Hope heard the crunch of dry leaves, and turned to see who had gotten the job of telling her it was over. A foot reached out and kicked her hard in the side.

"Damn it," Hope muttered rolling over before standing up in a defensive position. "Must you wear such hard shoes, Draco?"

The boy laughed and began circling her, striking out a few times. The two teens began fighting and blocking, Hope getting a few new bruises.

Hope heard a nasty curse and tried to move to deflect it, only to be blocked by her father, who had snuck up behind her. The curse hit her in the back, and Hope kneeled to the ground in pain.

"Stop!" She cried out, surprising everyone. When they had been training before, Hope wouldn't stop, no matter how badly hurt she got.

Severus looked at his daughter and saw the tears in her eyes. He moved towards her, but she stood up and bolted into the house. He turned around and met several confused and worried eyes before locking onto a pair of emerald ones.

"Do you understand what just happened?" He asked the teen.

Harry shook his head and looked toward the door. "I'll take care of it, though."

An hour later, Hope was curled up with her Potions textbook and a scroll of parchment in front of her. She was ready to hit her head on a cauldron because of the confusing instructions.

Hearing a knock on the door, she rolled her eyes at the incessant tries of people to come in over the past hour before returning to her reading.

"Hope, open the door or I'll do it for you," Harry called from outside the door.

Hope ignored him and heard him curse. She winced, sensing his foul mood and hoped her charm held up. She was disappointed as he entered a moment later.

"Just so you know, the longer a charm is left up without being recast, the weaker it gets," he said, plopping down into a chair beside her.

"Thanks for the advice," she said, turning back to her book.

"You won't use it against me, will you?" Harry asked, sounding regretful.

"Not against you, just to keep you out when I want to be alone."

Harry sighed. "Hope, will you talk to me?"

"About what, Harry? I have nothing to say to you, and before you go and repeat what I said to Severus, I have nothing to say to him or anyone else either."

Harry sighed again. "I don't know what to do with you anymore. You just don't trust me."

"I do too, Harry!"

"Then why do you continue to push me away?" He asked quietly.

"Because I'm scared, Harry! I don't want anyone to get hurt."

"Who has so far, Hope?" Harry saw the tears glistening in her eyes a moment before he landed on the floor in the hallway.

She spoke one more time before slamming the door shut. "My parents."

After yet another night of almost no sleep, Hope's alarm went off, and she groaned as she rolled out of bed. After a quick shower, she made her way downstairs. Halfway to the office, she ran smack into someone and fell backwards into a shelf causing everything to tumble on her.

"Oww...," she moaned as she shifted. She turned her head to look at the person she'd run into and winced at the look on her father's face.

"Sorry, Severus," she said, looking down. "I promise I'll use the money in my parent's vault to replace whatever's broken beyond fixing."

"Hope...," he trailed off, looking around. "I'm not worried about all the broken stuff, I'm worried about the fact it all broke on your head." He held out a hand to help her up.

Hope let him pull her to her feet and winced again. "I guess that wasn't so good either." She put a hand to her head and made a face when it had blood on it.

"Way to go, Hope. Give yourself a headache before Occlumency lessons."

Hope made another face before going to walk into the office. As soon as she started walking, Hope felt dizziness rush over her and went to slide to the floor. Instead of landing, she felt strong arms envelope her.

"Hope!" Severus exclaimed. Hope stood back up and rubbed her head. "You okay, now?"

"Yeah. Sorry, I don't now what happened."

Severus let go of the girl and watched as she walked into the office and sat down in the chair. He turned to his son.

"Draco, go get some food for her." Draco nodded and ran off. Severus went over to Hope and conjured a warm rag. He began cleaning the cut above Hope's eye when she jerked away.

"I can do it," she muttered, holding her hand out for the rag.

"So can I, child," he kindly said in reply, moving the rag to the cut once again.

"Severus, please!" Hope exclaimed. "I'm not a little girl. I can clean my own cuts."

Severus ignored the girl and raised the rag to the cut again. This time, Hope stayed quiet, but he saw the turmoil in her eyes.

He was just finishing up as Harry trudged in the room, looking more disheveled than normal.

"Good morning everyone!" Harry said cheerfully as he plopped into a chair.

"Merlin, must you be so cheery!" Hope exclaimed, putting her head down into her hands.

"Yep! What's your problem? It's too early for anything to go wrong."

Hope groaned and heard another voice enter the room.

"I have food. Is anyone hungry?" Draco exclaimed.

"No thanks," Hope said, as he held out a plate to her.

"Take it and stop complaining," Severus said, as he took his own plate from his son and set a potion on the table beside his daughter.

Hope took the plate and balanced it on her lap before examining the potion. "What is this?"

"A headache potion. Maybe that'll lesson your foul mood," Harry said from his seat.

Hope angrily stood up, dumping the food and plate all over the floor. She stormed the fifteen feet to Harry before yelling.

"You have no idea why I'm in such a 'foul mood' as you put it, so shut up. Not everyone wakes up from a perfect night's sleep and starts the day off well."

Harry placed his plate aside and stood so he towered over the shorter girl. "I did not have a perfect night's sleep, but that's nobody's problem except my own, which is why I acted kindly instead of rudely, like you."

Hope glared at her boyfriend. "I'm sure, Harry. Did you have a petty little nightmare to disturb your beauty sleep? What did you dream? Perhaps Cho Chang turning you down to the Yule Ball in your fourth year? Must be nice to have such simple problems."

"Hope!" Draco exclaimed.

"Stay out of this, Draco!" Hope said, turning to him. "You have no right to add anything to this conversation."

"And you have no right to pretend to know what I dream about, Hope!" Harry yelled. "But if you must know, I dreamed about those wonderful hours before you arrived when I was the subject of their wrath. Is that real enough for you?"

Hope's voice quieted before she answered, tears glazing her eyes. "Hours Harry? Try months of being treated like that."

Harry smirked. "But you weren't treated that way the entire time you were there, Hope. You were treated like a princess for awhile."

"Is that what you all think?" Hope whispered, looking at all three faces. She turned to Severus. "You were there, and you still think that?"

Severus was shocked. "I never said that, Hope."

"But you never said you didn't, either! How could you? How could any of you think that?" She turned and ran from the room, tears falling clearly down her face.

"Damn!" Harry cried out while kicking the table.

"Harry, please refrain from breaking anything in my office."

"Sorry, sir."

Severus nodded, looking upset as he collapsed into his chair. "So much for Occlumency lessons," he muttered.

By the time dinner had passed that night, Hope still had not returned. Everyone assumed she had gone into the woods again, but now they were getting worried.

"Dad?" Draco asked, entering the potion's lab.

"Yes?"

"Can I go look for Hope? Everyone else has tried to find this place except me. Can I go look?"

Severus pondered that for a moment before nodding. Draco immediately scurried out the door, his wand the only source of light.

He wandered around for an hour until he was deep in the woods. He looked for anywhere Hope might be hiding when he tripped over a pile of branches that were in the middle of the path. Turning, he noticed a small little path that would usually be covered by the branches. He went down it and gasped.

The place was absolutely beautiful. A lake was set off by flowers of every kind and rocks that glistened and shimmered were seen from all around.

Draco walked around in search for his sister. After going about fifty feet, he saw her at the top of the rocks. She had her knees drawn up to her chest and her head resting on them. As Draco got closer he also noticed her shaking shoulders.

"Hope?" He whispered, sitting down next to her.

"Go away. I'm not going back," she muttered, not looking up.

"Then we'll stay here. But why won't you go back?"

"The same reason I don't want you here. Because you all think that the Dark Lord treated me like a princess."

"I know he treated you in some ways like a princess, but I also know from my mother you were locked up in that room, unless Severus was teaching you. I also know that you weren't fed much over the arguments between my parents."

"Then why didn't you say anything in there?" She asked, looking up, tears still falling.

"The same reasons Severus didn't. We were shocked over your fight."

Draco pulled her to him and let her cry on his shoulder. After an hour, she grew still, having fallen asleep.

Draco picked her up and carried her up to the manor. After opening the door, he met a very irate Severus.

"Where have you been! It's been three hours," Severus yelled.

Draco shifted how he was holding Hope in his tired arms. "I was with Hope, who was in her secret place. Now if you don't mind, I have a girl in my arms whom I have carried down a very rocky, long, uneven path. Since she's not getting any lighter, would you mind moving so I can carry her upstairs without dropping her?"

Severus looked at the girl for a moment before holding his arms out for her. Draco looked at his little sister and hesitated before handing her to their father.

"Is she okay?" He asked quietly.

"No, Dad, she's not. But she will be. I'll make sure of it."

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A/N: Merry Christmas!! Here's my Christmas present to you, a new chapter!!! Leave me a present and review?? Pwease??

I love ya'll.

Kayla