Chapter Twenty-Three.
Times Of Change.

The next few days went by fairly quickly for Harry. When he wasn't in classes he was visiting Ron or with Hermione and Ginny in the library trying to find a place in the school the horcrux might be hidden. Ginny, Harry and Hermione spent most of their time visiting Ron who was becoming very restless at being stuck in the hospital wing every day. Madame Pomfrey had told him she would let him out by the weekend, Hermione had pointed out this would be for the best as he would have all weekend to catch up on his work. As Harry had told Mcgonagall Snape had managed to apparate into the grounds, she and the order had become confused at how this had happened. They had come to the conclusion that when Isabella Takard had been teaching at the school she had performed the very complicated charm on one part of the grounds and broken the protection so the death eaters could only get in at that particular point. Members of the order were yet to find out where exactly this was. Mcgonagall had announced Snape's death in the great hall and cleared his name amongst the ministry and wizarding world. Most of them still saw him as the scum that killed Albus Dumbledore and Harry partly agreed with them. All of the students had been warned there might be an attack on Hogwarts and most of the first and second years had been taken home. The school was emptier than it had ever been and it increased Harry's determination to destroy Voldemort. As when he was gone things would be safer in the wizarding world. Harry and Hermione had now fully mastered the killing curse after what felt like months of practice. It was Friday morning and Harry and Hermione were in the great hall eating breakfast, Hermione as usual was stuck with her head behind the daily prophet barely eating anything.

"Look at this!" Hermione exclaimed shoving the daily prophet right in front of Harry's face.

"Hermione if you put it that close to my eyes I can't see it." Harry said pushing the paper away and taking it from Hermione.

"What's that Harry?" Seamus asked looking in on the prophet where Harry was flattening it out on the table. Harry began to read as Hermione watched him impatiently.

Hog's Head in Flames.

'Late last night around two in the morning, death eaters attacked the bar in Hogsmeade the Hog's head. The ministry were contacted after a passer by heard loud bangs and shouts coming from inside the pub. By the time the ministry officials arrived, the pub was in ruins and two men were found dead. One a 79 year old wizard by the name of Jonathon Jenkinson and the other a death eater who goes by the name of Vincent Crabbe Senior. The owner of the pub Mr William Brulick is yet to be found. At this moment he can only be declared in hiding or missing. The daily prophet would like to remind you all once again to read the ministry code for protection against death eaters if you have any doubts about your safety and what actions you can take to help protect yourself and your families.'

"We said he would go after Aber…ow!" Hermione had just stood extremely hard on Harry's foot.

"What was that Harry?" Seamus said curiously giving Hermione a strange look.

"I was just saying I wonder where the bar owner disappeared to." Harry said avoiding Hermione's glare.

"I don't reckon he would have escaped. Wonder what they'd want with the hog's head owner though. Then again, what did they want with Florean Fortescue when they took him? Unless you know who and his death eaters have a soft spot for ice cream. And now they want endless firewhisky to go with it. Be a lot easier to duel with if they're all drunk and round." Seamus grinned.

"Yeah your dead right there." Harry laughed. He looked at Hermione who was still scowling at him.

"Come on we've got double potions, don't want to be late do we." Hermione said sternly rising up from her seat and pulling Harry up with her. Harry getting the feeling that Hermione wanted to talk to him alone looked at Seamus apologetically who was still finishing his breakfast.

"See you there." Harry said picking up his bag and began walking after Hermione. He caught sight of Ginny who was walking with Neville and Luna into the great hall; she smiled when she saw him. "I'll have to see you later Ginny…potions." Harry pointed towards the corridor outside the great hall.

"First lessons don't start for another half an hour." Ginny said raising her eyebrows.

"Explain later." Harry muttered to her hastily giving her a kiss on the cheek and catching up with Hermione. Hermione and Harry carried on walking until they were finally in a quiet place outside the dungeons. "So where do you think he is?" Harry said looking at Hermione who had seemed to be in a bad mood all morning. She dropped her bag down and sat on the step outside the door putting her head in her hands.

"I don't know Harry, if he got away he will most probably try and contact you. All we can really do is wait." Hermione sighed.

"Ron is going to blame this on himself when he finds out." Harry said sitting down next to her.

"No he won't Harry he's not you." Hermione snapped she looked at Harry who was taken aback. "Sorry." Hermione said quietly. They talked about where Aberforth could possibly be if Voldemort didn't capture him until the bell rang and students started walking slowly to their lessons. Harry watched them walk by until two people he saw made his eyes do a double take.

"Parvarti and Lavender?" Harry gasped turning to look at Hermione to see if she knew anything about this. Harry saw Hermione watching them mostly her eyes fixed on one of them.

"They came back late last night, said they had both been learning what they could at home but they had finally managed to persuade there parents to let them at least do the last five months and the exams. Lavender said she could have come back at the start of the year but would never come without Parvarti. Pathetic if you ask me." Hermione snorted still not taking her eyes off Lavender who had now walked out of sight talking non-stop to Parvarti. Harry smirked to himself when he pictured Ron's reaction to Lavender being back at Hogwarts.

"It can't be that pathetic. You and Ron weren't going to come back without me." Hermione gave Harry a cold stare that made him wish he hadn't spoken at all and carried on.

"She also said once she found out what had happened to Ron and that he had been brought back here she just had to come and see him." Hermione said grimly through gritted teeth. Harry thought this was a dangerous subject to be talking about with Hermione and quickly changed it.

"Come on our class went in two minutes ago." Harry informed her getting up. When Harry was inside Potions he sat himself down next to Hermione and got out his copy of 'Advanced potion making' He had seriously considered going back into the room of requirement and getting back The half blood prince's copy now that he didn't hate Snape so much but hadn't found the time. Moody sat down in front of the class and his magical eye rolled around in its socket looking at everyone. As it did every lesson it lingered on Harry for just a second longer than anyone else.

"Good everyone's 'ere." He growled still looking around at everyone as if they were about to attack him. "Page 243. Ingredient's in the cupboard." Moody looked back down at his desk and began to write as he did every lesson. Harry turned to page 243 and saw that the potion they had been instructed to make was 'Herefern' Potion.

"What's that?" Harry mumbled to himself whilst looking at the ingredients he needed.

"Whoever drinks it will be completely restless and full of energy. People use it when they need to get a lot of things done very quickly when they can't afford to sleep." Hermione told him.

"For how long?" Harry said walking with Hermione towards the ingredients cupboard.

"Depends how much they drink. But too much can lead to a lack of sleep and an unknown exhaustion which can lead to death." Hermione said straightforwardly. I'm never going to touch that then Harry thought to himself. The rest of the lesson went by slowly, Hermione who was trying to get everything right got extremely frustrated when her potion turned light blue instead of dark blue and her bad mood got worse throughout the day. By the time of transfiguration, which was the last lesson of the day, Harry only talked to Hermione if he needed to in fear of her possibly hexing him. Lavender who was sitting behind them had said a little too loudly to Parvarti that she would be visiting Ron later and was sure he would be happy to see her after their long break. "I don't know who she thinks she's kidding." Hermione had said under her breath looking infuriated. Harry at that moment would have put money on the two girls having a full on duel by the end of next week.

The next morning Harry and Hermione awoke early to go and meet Ron when he came out of the hospital wing.

"Now get plenty of rest. And take this potion every day for two weeks. A teaspoonful will do, it's strong stuff. Sometimes when people's memories have been modified so much they start to get flashbacks, this potion will prevent anything like that happening." Madame Pomfrey said handing the potion to Ron.

"But wouldn't that be a good thing, I mean if I remember something that might help us against Voldemort?" Ron said thoughtfully.

"Anything important will be well covered. It's the un-important things that won't be." Madame Pomfrey told him. Ron nodded and pocketed the bottle with the potion inside and began walking back towards the common room with Harry and Hermione.

"It's good to be out again, I was going insane in there!" Ron said happily. "So what are we doing today then?"

"I was thinking you really should make a start on your homework." Hermione suggested.

"You know what we haven't done in a long time?" Harry said.

"Played quidditch?" Ron grinned as if he had just read Harry's mind. The three of them entered the common room and sat down in their usual armchairs. The room was empty as no one got up this early on weekends.

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Harry smiled. "I'll go get our brooms. Coming Hermione?" Harry was surprised to see a frown on her face. He had thought since Ron had come out of the hospital wing she would have been happy.

"Ron you really should do that homework." Hermione said sternly.

"Ah Hermione, I can do that later. Don't I deserve a little fun?" Ron appealed.

"It's not just that. Outside and on a broom, it's a bit dangerous considering the circumstances. If you were to be imperiused again they could easily just make you fly away." Hermione said stiffly. Ron sat back in his chair and rolled his eyes ruffling his flaming red hair.

"If I flew in the opposite direction on my broom I wouldn't get very far with Harry on my tail would I?" Ron laughed. "And he out flew a dragon."

"Or with Hermione jinxing your broom in mid air." Harry chimed in. Harry thought he saw Hermione's face relax a little and he got up. "See, perfectly safe." Harry turned around to sprint up the boy's dormitory stairs; Seamus was sat on his bed. Harry picked up Ron's broom's accidentally slamming his trunk and waking up Neville.

"Playing quidditch Harry? Can I play?" Seamus asked him eagerly.

"Yeah sure, coming Neville?" Harry said looking at Neville.

"The first time I was ever on a broom…well you remember what happened." Neville shuddered. "But me and Luna will most probably come down and watch."

"Ok, we'll be on the quidditch pitch." Harry walked back down the dormitory stairs and found Ginny sitting with Ron and Hermione clutching her broom. When the four of them arrived on the quidditch pitch they saw none other than Viktor Krum flying around the hoops at the opposite end of the pitch. When he saw them he flew down to the ground and Ron glowered at him.

"You are playing?" Krum said looking at Harry.

"Yeah, we are." Harry told him.

"Do you mind if…?" Krum began but was interrupted by Ron.

"Yeah you can play." Ron said fiercely. Hermione and Ginny seemed surprised at Ron but Harry didn't think Ron wanted Krum to play for friendly reasons. Five minutes later Seamus arrived with his broom and Harry and Ron sorted out the teams and Ron pointed out they didn't have enough players to fill all the positions and turned to Hermione.

"No way am I playing quidditch Ron." Hermione said firmly.

"Please Hermione, you're not that bad at it." Ron said unconvincingly.

"We'll play Ron." A voice said out of nowhere, Harry turned around and saw it was Lavender brown standing with Parvarti. Parvarti had an annoyed look on her face.

"Er…ok." Ron said looking surprised and not pleased at all to see Lavender. "I swear she stalks me." Ron whispered grimly in Harry's ear so that no one else could hear him. Harry only just managed to stop himself from laughing with a great deal of effort.

"Well if everybody else is." Hermione sighed looking daggers at Lavender who was returning the look.

"Really Hermione, what changed your mind?" Harry smirked at her.

"Don't. Even. Start." Hermione said to Harry through clenched teeth. The eight of them played quidditch for the whole of the morning switching teams and positions now and then. Ron seemed desperate to save everything Krum sent at him and was at least saving more than he was letting in. Harry swore he saw Hermione hit a bludger at Lavenders head even though they were playing on the same team, which Lavender managed to dodge. How she did that Harry didn't know. She was utterly useless at quidditch. Lavender occasionally flew nearer to Ron trying to catch his eye but it was a lost cause as Ron's only stare was on Krum. Harry even wondered if Lavender even knew Ron and Hermione were an item, she was acting so much like she didn't. Harry thoroughly enjoyed himself and as everyone went inside eventually it was just Harry and Ron still playing throughout the day. Hermione who had given up and was now watching Harry take shots against Ron and to all three of them's annoyance Lavender was sitting next to her. The next morning Harry, Ron and Hermione were in the common room. Ron as he had promised was making a start on his homework with Hermione's help. She seemed more willing to help him than ever before and Harry knew it was because she was pleased to have him back. Harry saw a familiar owl outside the window and leapt up from his armchair when he saw it. It was Aberforth's owl. He opened the window and untied the letter from its leg. He sat back down and ripped open the letter.

"Read it then Harry." Ron said eagerly. But Harry stopped as he heard someone coming down the girl's dormitory stairs and saw Lavender coming towards them smiling. All three of them now looked exasperated.

"So, what are we doing today then?" Lavender said sitting down next to Ron.

"Er…what?" Harry said thinking something definitely had to be done about Lavender.