A/N I might make a bit of a mistake in the beginning of this chapter please tell me if I do. Otherwise, enjoy!

Good Days to Bad Days

Hermione waved her wand one more time, three tries after she had said "one more try". Harry was getting very frustrated, he wanted the curse broken and he wanted it broken now. It was ridiculous! How hard was it to kill a soul in an inanimate object?

The three of them had been sitting in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom for about three hours trying to figure out how to get the soul out of Hufflepuff's cup. Three hours of trying, three hours of failing.

"One more time," Hermione said after failing again.

She waved her arm in all the right positions, said the words, and the cup lit up, lifted off the floor. More than it had done all the other times.

"It's working!" Ron said with happiness. "You're doing it!"

A smile spread across Harry's face and Hermione's. the cup shook in the air, there was a quiet scream and a flash of light, but then the cup fell to the floor for the millionth time.

"Argh!" Harry jumped up and kicked the foot of the sink while punching the mirror.

"Harry!" Hermione yelled at him, "That won't do any good, we'll just try again," She finished calmly.

"Again?! We've been doing it for three hours!" He shouted, putting particular emphasis on the word three.

"Harry's right Hermione," Ron cut in, "Maybe we should leave it and try again tomorrow?"

Hermione looked sadly from Ron to Harry and back again. Their faces were set as stone, so she slowly nodded her head and picked up the cup.

"I was nearly there…" She said quietly to Ron.

"I know, but, maybe your arm was tired?" Ron tried.

"I'd be able to do it if we stayed a little longer," She whispered to him.

"I know, but…" He looked pointedly at Harry, who was intently reading the letter from Dumbledore again, "Best leave it for today?"

Hermione nodded and started to walk over to Harry. It had been roughly one month since Harry had received the letter from Dumbledore, and every night Ron caught him reading it somewhere or another, mostly when he was aggravated about something. The letter seemed to calm Harry down. Maybe it was the encouraging words in it from Dumbledore; but they had been trying to break the curse on this cup for two weeks and nothing had happened until tonight.

"Come on Harry, let's go and get some sleep, yeah?" Hermione asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He turned around, red eyed and tired. "One more time?"

"Harry," Ron started, but Hermione cut him off with a warning look.

She went back to her previous position, placing the cup where it had been before, and taking a deep breath, she started muttering the spell again. Her eyes were tightly shut, like she was concentrating only on that one thing. Again, the cup lifted into the air and lit up. This time, it started spinning round; slow at first, but getting fast and faster. Suddenly it stopped and the light went away. Hermione opened her eyes slowly at the sound of Harry and Ron's sighs and looked at the cup. It was still floating, but not moving and lightless. Hermione held her arm in place and looked at Harry, who was looking at the floor and clearly close to tears. She breathed in deeply and closed her eyes again, with all the determination she could muster, she said the spell aloud. Suddenly the cup lit up so the room glowed around them. It started to spin again, around and around. There was a loud bang and flash of even brighter light. All three of them looked away and felt pieces of glass hit them sharply and there was a scream louder than thunder. Then the light disappeared as quickly as it came and there was a smash on the floor where the cup fell in pieces.

"What was that?" Ron asked after turning back round.

"It was the cup…" Hermione started, "Is it…"

"You did it…" Harry said in awe. "It's gone… Hermione! You did it!" Harry leaped with joy and ran over to hug her as tightly as he could. And as he was hugging her he saw it. The snakelike face in the air, falling into pieces as well as the cup on the floor. "You did it!"

The two of them jumped around with joy and then Hermione ran over to Ron and kissed him. Harry stopped laughing as soon as he saw what Hermione was doing and looked on with a confused expression.

When Hermione finally stopped, Ron looked from her to Harry and back. "What was that for?" He asked shakily.

"Well," Hermione stuttered, "I thought that, you, were left out…"

Ron looked at Harry for help, and Harry motioned for him to hug her. Ron did so and Hermione hugged him straight back.

"What's going on in here?!" A voice shouted from the door, "Ron?"

Ginny looked at Ron and Hermione hugging and then looked to Harry.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked, walking over to her.

"Well," Ginny replied, not taking her eyes off her brother, "I heard a scream from down the corridor… What were you doing?"

"Nothing, it was just Ron," Harry laughed.

"It sounded like a girl though," Ginny questioned.

"Yes well," Harry replied, "He saw a spider."

Ron gave Harry a threatening look and shook his head, to which Harry just laughed. Ginny laughed as well and the four of them started to walk back to the Gryffindor common room, Ron and Hermione hand in hand.


"Potter."

Harry turned around, hearing the voice but not seeing the source of it.

"Potter!"

He whipped around in the opposite direction, where was it coming from?

"Potter."

"Potter."

"Potter!"

The shouts came from all around him, all at once. Where was he? In a field, a misty field, what was he doing here?

"DUMBLEDORE!"

"NO!" Harry shouted as he saw the man fly across the field in a state of deadly shock. He then lay on the ground, dead.

"Potter… I'm after you."

"No…" Harry whispered.

"HARRY!" He shouted. "AVADA KADAVRA!"

"NO!"

Harry woke up with a start in his bed, shaking violently and still hearing Voldemort's voice in his head. But he was alive, it was ok, it wasn't real.

"Harry?"

Ron's voice made him jump half a mile out of his bed and his wand was raised.

"Oh," He said when he saw Ron, lowering his wand, "Sorry."

"It's ok," Ron replied, "Did you have another nightmare?"

Harry nodded his head vigorously and sat back down on his bed.

"Don't worry," Ron tried, "Just remember they're not real."

"But I dream about real things, just with a bit of difference," Harry said quietly.

Harry could tell that Ron didn't know what to say, so he just pretended like everything was ok and said he'd go back to sleep.

"You should write to your dad," Ron suggested while getting back into his bed.

"No, he'd tell mum, then she'd get worried and want to tell Dum…" He couldn't believe he'd done it. He swore to himself he wouldn't do anything like that.

"Then, why don't you tell Sirius?" Ron suggested, changing the subject slyly.

Harry smiled to his friend in the darkness, and although he could hardly see him, he saw Ron smile back. "Thanks," He said before rolling over to go back to sleep. The rest of the night was undisturbed, as Harry had dreams of a big black dog chasing butterflies in a wide, open, green field.


At breakfast the next morning there was an air of something good to come. The Great Hall was buzzing with excitement as the first Hogsmede trip of the year was later that morning. Harry could tell this was going to be a good day.

The post owls flew in early that morning, for a reason no one really knew. But as Hermione received her Daily Prophet, her face went stone cold and pale.

"Hermione? What's wrong?" Ron and Harry asked together.

Her eyes filled with tears and they started to pour out before either of the boys could stop them. Then suddenly, a letter fell into Harry's lap. He looked up and saw his dad's owl flying away. He looked at Ron and then began to open it. Hermione saw the letter in Harry's hand and cried even more. Ron tried to snatch the paper off her but she wouldn't let him as she motioned to Harry.

He opened the scroll as fast as he could, not knowing what was going on, but knowing something was terribly wrong.

Dear Harry

It's your mum here sweetie, I'm afraid I have some bad news. I hope you haven't read it in the Prophet already this morning but, it's Sirius.

Harry stopped reading instantly, not wanting to know what happened after those words, although he had a fairly good idea.

"Harry? Can I?" Ron took the letter gently from Harry's hand, noticing Harry's body go rigid like stone.

He read aloud when he started.

"Dear Harry," He started.

"Don't read it aloud," Harry said.

"No, go on Ron," Hermione choked.

"It's your mum here sweetie, I'm afraid I have some bad news. I hope you haven't read it in the Prophet already this morning but, it's Sirius. He's… dead…" Ron paused between the words, although there was no pause between them in the letter. "He, he was attacked last night by Death Eaters when on a mission for the Order… We got there as soon as we could, but our soon was not quick enough. You can come home any time if you want, to be with us. Your father is devastated, he couldn't write. We love you lots sweetie, take care. Mum…"

"Harry," Hermione's tears had cleared up and she leant over the table to put her hand on his.

Ron had also gone rigid, not knowing what to say.

"Which Death Eaters?" Harry asked slowly.

"I, I don't know Harry," Hermione said.

"You've got the paper!" Harry yelled as he pulled it from her lap.

He read in his head at first, but when he got down to the important part he read out loud; "…was accused of murdering, blah blah blah, it is believed that the Death Eaters by the surnames of Macnair, Lastrange and, and Goyle tortured Black to a slow and painful…" Harry trailed off, almost being sick.

It was only then that he noticed the majority of the people in the Great Hall watching him as he swerved uneasily on the bench. He felt like he couldn't breathe, his heart was stopping and his lungs were ever-decreasing in size.

"Harry…" Ginny came up and spoke.

"Voldemort…" Harry said; everyone listening to him cringed at the name. "His people…" He spat out, "Killed… my… Godfather!"

Harry leapt up and threw his plate across the table. He turned around to everyone watching him. "Are you having fun? Watching my pain?!" He shouted. "You wait! It will happen to you!"

"Harry!" Ginny tried to pull him back.

"Murderers! The whole lot of them!" He shouted at the top of his voice, pushing Ginny down. Then he singled out Goyle, sitting on the Slytherin table, looking, for once, guilty. "Murderers," He whispered, not taking his eyes of Goyle. Then he ran out of the hall, ran out of the building and ran anywhere he could to get away from them all. Watching his every move.

If it had been anyone else's Godfather no one would have cared. Harry bet that the news article even mentioned him somewhere, but he wasn't bothered to find out.

"Harry!" Ron ran after him.

He turned around to see his best friend, only just noticing that he had tears on his cheeks and he was sweating. "Ron," He said, "What have they done?"

"Mate," Ron didn't stop walking as he got closer to Harry, he just put his arms around him and let him cry.

"Why?" Harry murmured, "Why are they so cruel?"

Ron pushed him away, ready to say something, but Harry got in there first; "You're crying!"

"So are you," Ron replied quickly.

Harry couldn't help but smile, even if it was the tiniest smile in the whole world, his friend always knew how to make him smile.

"Are you going to go home?" Ron asked about ten minutes later when they were sitting under a tree.

"No, there's no point," Harry replied sadly, "I don't want to see Sirius like that."

"Neither would I," Ron said sadly.

They both sat in silence for a few minutes. Harry was thinking about how his world was tumbling down around his ears, and he didn't know why. What on earth had he done to deserve it? He soon came to the conclusion that Voldemort had ordered Death Eaters to kill Sirius because Harry had gotten away from him that night in the field. He did it to make Harry angry, sad or any other emotion but happy. And it had worked. He wanted to kill him now more than ever. He had also decided that he wanted to kill him, not his dad. He could and would kill that wizard before anyone had a chance. There was so much burning anger in him now that if he wanted, he could kill anyone who annoyed him.

Ginny walked up to the two of them five minutes later very tentatively. Ron looked at them both and decided it would be best to leave. After he had stood up Ginny took his place where he had been sitting on the damp grass.

"I'm sorry I pushed you back down," Harry said quietly.

"I understand," Ginny replied, "And I'm sorry about the argument last night. I was just being nosy and self-centred again."

"That's ok, I should include you Gin, and I know that. I just want to protect you," He replied.

Ginny nodded in agreement and took hold of Harry's clammy hand. "I'll always be here for you, you know," She said softly.

"I know, I just hope I'll always be here for you," He said.

"Of course you will! It's not like you're fighting Voldemort in the end."

"Well, I am now," Harry told her.

"What?"

"I want to kill him Ginny. I will kill him. And if you don't want to be with a murderer then that's fine. But I'm going to kill him," He said.

"Well," Ginny said to argue with him, but she then thought that this was neither the time, nor the place to argue again. "Well I'll be here, whatever you decide." She said.

"I love you," Harry said, looking in her eyes.

She smiled weakly and replied, "I love you too."


A/N Oohh, isn't Harry's life filling with a bit too much murder? Wonder what will happen next? Then I'll put it up as fast as I can!