Disclaimer: Don't own it, never have, never will.

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Chapter Twenty: Back to Hogwarts

Hope awoke to someone shaking her. She grumbled and rolled over.

"Oh, come on, Hope. School hasn't even started and you won't get up. How is this a way to start the school year?"

Hope looked up into Hermione's face and growled. "What in Merlin's name are you waking me up for?"

Hermione shrugged. "Severus said since nobody packed last night except me, I had to wake up everyone and tell them that breakfast is ready, and then everyone has to pack because we have to be at the train station by noon."

Hope grumbled as she got out of bed and made her way downstairs. She knew Hermione was laughing at the fact she was wearing her pajamas still, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

She sat at the table beside Harry and waited for the food to arrive. Everyone had decided to stay at the manor last night, so nobody was packed and ready to go. Hermione, the only exception, had packed before the ball, claiming to know that waiting would prove to be a mistake.

After eating, everyone made their way up to their rooms. Using her wand, Hope packed everything she was taking with her in her trunk. She walked over to her desk and climbed up onto a chair to reach something hidden behind a trap door in her wall.

She pulled out a tiny photo book, one that had three pictures in it. One of them was a picture she had found at the manor while cleaning it up. It was a picture of her parents holding her as a baby outside in the snow with a 'Happy Christmas' sign in the backround. The second picture was one of her adoptive parents, all gathered around a Christmas tree, with her sitting on the floor holding up a present. The last picture was from this past Christmas, with Severus and Draco. She smiled as she placed it carefully on the top of her trunk.

She made her way downstairs, levitating her trunk behind her. She set it down and saw her father carrying a big bag.

"Lesson plans?" She asked him.

He glared at her. "To think, I got stuck with teenagers all summer long, now I have to go and try to get important information through their extremely thick skulls," he said, tapping his hand against her head as he passed her.

"Draco, Harry, hurry up!"

Hope locked eyes with her father as he turned around. "This year is going to be different, isn't it?"

He sighed. "It is. Seamus keeps informing the order that there are many more people in Slytherin whom have made the choice to join ranks with Voldemort. He also says that there is a spy that nobody knows the identity of except for Voldemort."

Hope narrowed her eyes. "Let me guess, it's someone close to us?"

Severus sighed. "It seems like it, Hope. You all need to be very careful."

Hope shook her head. "I won't punish my friends because one of them is an idiot. Maybe we can still save them, like we did Seamus."

Severus shrugged. "Time will tell. All we know now is that this person is somehow giving information to the Dark Lord, information not many people knew. Like your self healing."

Hope sighed. "I guess we'll watch what we say. Just to keep other people safe. Maybe I can come up with a plan to figure out who it is."

Severus nodded his thanks as the other two boys hurried downstairs.

"Dad, we're still going to spend weekends down with you, like we talked about, right?" Draco asked as he set his trunk next to his sister's.

Severus nodded. "If you want to. I'm not going to force you."

Everyone nodded. Sadly, everyone picked up their trunks and grabbed the portkey that Severus held out. A moment later, they were on the platform.

Hope sat in a compartment with Harry, Hermione and Draco, and stared out the window. She felt lost. The school year was going to be intense. Training for all four of them every night, constantly battling death eaters, trying to find a way to kill Voldemort. Plus, it was their Newt year and Hermione was going to be hammering them all to study every available moment.

Hope couldn't even imagine how different it was. A year and a half ago, she didn't even know about magic, and now she was the most powerful witch in existence.

She felt someone touch her shoulder and turned around to smile at Harry.

"You okay?"

Hope thought for a moment. "Are any of us ready for this? We're just teenagers, and we have to fight the biggest evil the wizarding world has ever seen. How are we going to do this?"

Hermione smiled. "We're going to stick together. No more fighting, it only makes us weaker. We have to stay united. We have to stay focused, but not loose sight of what we are fighting for. We want to be free, right? Well, the sooner Voldemort and his followers are gone, the sooner we can live our lives without looking over our shoulders. It's going to be hard, but we'll make it, because we all have each other."

Hope smiled at her best friend. All of them felt scared, but she was right. They would win, because they had what Voldemort couldn't kill; True friendship.

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A/N: Sorry it's late!! So much is going on, I just completely forgot to post. Sorry!! But it 's only two days late, that counts right:S I hope you guys like it. If I get it to my beta in time to have her read it and fix it, then I should post the first chapter of the next part of the series on Friday. At least I hope.
For those who haven't already joined, my chapter was posted on my group on Wednesday, and will be from now on, so if you don't want to wait, you can always join that. It's on my homepage. :)