I forgot the standard disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter, not I.

Chapter Two

Protector

Harry still couldn't believe he had agreed to this. It was against his better judgment, but as Hermione pointed out, there seemed to be no other way.

Harry checked the Marauder's Map again in the dim light of the corridor. Hermione's chin was on his shoulder as she peered down at it as well. Both breathed a bit faster than usual as they hid under the Invisibility Cloak. Tucked against the wall behind a statue of a dancing goblin, they saw a marker coming into the sixth floor corridor.

An irritated looking Argus Filch came around the corner, holding a lamp out in front of him with his left hand as he made his way toward them. Mrs. Norris silently padded along at his feet.

The concealed pair watched the caretaker warily as he shuffled past, mumbling something that they could not make out. Hermione let slip a tiny gasp, and Harry saw that they were being watched. The cat was looking right at them, only feet away.

Filch slowed to a stop as he looked over his shoulder. "What is it, my sweet?" A cruel grin grew on his face as he turned and, to Harry's extreme dismay, began to shuffle their direction. "Is that so? Amylus will be happy to have another student for detention."

Harry had often wondered if Filch could talk to his cat, and this seemed to confirm it in his mind. But this wasn't the time to be thinking about that. He slowly started to move away from the spot behind the statue, Hermione close by, only to find Mrs. Norris moving to block their path. He stifled the powerful urge to kick her to the opposite wall. I will if Filch finds us!

Filch was getting closer, and Harry had few acceptable ideas. The plan would be ruined if they had to curse Filch, but what else could they do? He refused to be caught here, even if it meant they would have to give up on Flitwick's help and abandon Grimmauld Place. It seemed Hermione agreed with him, as she already had her wand out. The only problem was that she wasn't aiming it at Filch. It was pointed well down the hall in the direction they had come from.

He didn't dare ask her what she was doing, as Filch was now only a few paces from them. His lantern was held out toward them he seemed to be searching with his squinting eyes. Harry could easily hear the faint wheezing which accompanied each of Filch's foul smelling breaths. Hermione moved, and he saw a swish and flick of her wand out of the corner of his eye.

CRASH!

Harry gave a small jump at the clattering sounds of metal as they slid across the stone floor. Filch seemed to be far more startled, jerking his head around toward the source of the offending noise. "Peeves!" The caretaker's face contorted with rage as he stumped down the corridor, apparently forgetting all else. As the old man moved away, Harry felt a nudge in his ribs.

"Let's go!" Her intense whisper drove him as they dodged around Filch's cat, who watched them go as if she had just had dessert taken away.

Racing away from the still clattering sounds echoing in the dark hallway, the pair turned up the next stairway and emerged onto the seventh floor. Proceeding at a trot toward the West Tower, they came to a stop, breathing hard, before a wooden door. It had a silver raven head with a ring in its beak and a remarkably low door handle.

Checking the map once more, Harry saw his and Hermione's names, and only one other nearby, on the other side of the door. Looking over his shoulder at his friend, she gave a nervous nod as he pocketed the map.

His disembodied hand appeared before them, grasping the ring and rapping it three times. After a moment it opened, revealing a diminutive old wizard in his dark blue nightclothes and a rather floppy hat to match. Filius Flitwick rubbed his eyes, then peered either direction in front of the entrance to his chambers, looking a bit confused.

"Professor," Hermione whispered, "we really need to talk with you."

He jumped at the voice, taking a moment to renew his searching of the seemingly vacant corridor. He leaned forward, looking just to Harry's left as he whispered, "Miss Granger? Is that you?"

"Yes, Professor," she answered, "can we come in? It's very important."

He nodded briefly as he mumbled, "Of course, Miss Granger, hurry." He stepped to the side and the pair moved inside. They turned to see that he was still peering into the corridor.

Harry called out to him quietly. "We're inside, Professor."

Flitwick started again at this new voice, looking around his room before closing the door with a bit of a flustered air about him. "How many of you are there, Mr. Potter?"

"There's just the two of us, Professor." Pulling off the cloak, Harry gave him a wry smile. "Sorry for calling like this, but we have something only you can help us with."

Flitwick held up his small hand. "Just a moment. Miss Granger, what was the first occasion that I awarded you points for Gryffindor?"

Hermione hesitated for a second, obviously not expecting to be quizzed. "It was in your class, our first year, for casting a levitation charm, I think." She seemed a bit unsure, being put on the spot like that, but Flitwick merely nodded.

"Mr. Potter," he said, turning to Harry, "please tell me on which occasion I took points from you."

Harry was confused for a moment. "Sir, I don't remember you ever taking points from Gryffindor because of something I've done."

Flitwick smiled. "Quite right, Mr. Potter. I had to be sure it was really you. With the new order being set and the Carrons wandering the halls, you simply can't be too careful."

He moved over to a rather small, comfortable looking armchair. He dropped into it heavily, letting out a long breath. Harry glanced around the room curiously. It was one of the few places in the castle he had never been.

There were a great deal of pictures on the walls, rather than the paintings one saw so many other places in Hogwarts. Most seemed rather old, as the witches and wizards moving within them were dressed a bit differently than Harry was used to. In almost every one Harry could immediately locate Flitwick, as he was usually the smallest one present. A number of books filled an old wooden shelf near the entrance, neatly arranged and dust free. A simple desk with quill and sheaves of parchment set off to the side, various items that seemed to have no use, and (to Harry's surprise) what appeared to be a Foe Glass leaning near another door.

"Just arrived a week ago," the Professor stated, noticing Harry's stare at the dark detector. "I ordered it after Albus…well, I thought if one Death Eater could infiltrate the school, why not another? Never could have guessed that they would be walking the halls with the blessings of a new Headmaster."

"New Headmaster?" Hermione seemed rather interested in this. Harry was a bit lost, as well. When he had left Hogwarts the night before, McGonagall was in charge.

"Merlin's Beard, you didn't know?" Flitwick sat up straight in his chair, a bit of a sneer on his lips. "The night you escaped, Severus Snape arrived with the other Death Eaters. It seems even the Ministry couldn't hold out against You-Know-Who's influence. He had a signed order from the new Minister saying that he's now Headmaster. Officially took over first thing this morning." Harry had never seen the Professor refer to anyone with such disdain, but he fully understood.

But if Snape was here, in charge of Hogwarts, then they might have even less time than Harry thought. With him around, Hermione's job would be that much more difficult.

"Professor Flitwick," he said, "we need to ask you something about the Fidelius Charm."

"Ah, a very powerful protective charm," he nodded, "and very complex. Takes almost a full day for a skilled wizard to cast it. I take it you've found a place that you want to fortify as a…well a hideout?"

"Sort of," Harry began, "there's just a small problem."

Hermione took over for him. "Professor, if a Fidelius Charm had already been cast on a place, and the secret keeper was…" She paused for a moment, unhappy at thinking of Dumbledore's death again so soon after it happened. "If the secret keeper died for some reason…"

Flitwick spoke up. "If something like that happened, then the role of secret keeper would be passed to everyone who had been told its location. Any of them would then be able to give the location away."

"Yeah, we know about that, Professor," Harry said. "The place we've found, Professor Dumbledore was the secret keeper."

Flitwick's eyes widened. "Oh my. Well, as I understand it, something like that is possible, but extraordinarily difficult. Nearly impossible, might be more accurate. I've never even witnessed it being done. Setting it, yes, but not removing." He got to his feet and moved over to his bookcase, seeming to search. "I have a book that explains the ways of the Fidelius, but I don't know how detailed the description of its removal is. Ah!"

Waving his wand, a book slid off the top shelf. Harry was wondering how Flitwick could have seen it when even Ron would have stretched to reach it. However he did it, the head of Ravenclaw was now back in his chair, flipping through the pages of the old, but well cared for, tome. He stopped and began to read intently. It wasn't long before he was shaking his gray-haired head slowly.

"No…no this won't do at all," he said, apparently, to himself. "No, this isn't enough to go on." Turning from page to page, he seemed more and more disheartened. A feeling Harry was having himself. If Flitwick couldn't do it, then they would have to find somewhere else. "It would be impossible without more clear…Merlin's Hat, this is it!"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other in surprise, both moving to either side of the excited Flitwick and looking over his shoulder. Harry's eyes bulged as he saw the neat, slanted writing that filled the margins and blank spaces of the pages. "That's Dumbledore's writing!"

"Are you sure, Harry?" Hermione didn't take her eyes from the complicated flow of Dumbledore's words. Harry couldn't make heads or tails of it, but obviously Flitwick could.

"Yes, yes, Miss Granger," he piped happily, "this is definitely Albus' work!" He turned the page to find another spread of writing and hand-drawn diagrams, far more complicated that anything Harry had ever seen in his N.E.W.T. classes, and that was saying something. "I let him borrow the book a number of years ago. Said he needed to brush up on it for some reason. I just put it back on the shelf when he returned it; never gave it a second thought."

"Professor," Hermione spoke hopefully, "does this mean you could do it?"

Flitwick nodded absently, though he was still grinning broadly. "Oh, yes indeed! Albus always was rather good with absurdly complicated concepts. He's the only wizard I can think of that can explain something so cleanly."

"But what about if the secret keeper is gone, Professor?" Harry couldn't help crossing his fingers as he asked. "Does it explain that as well?"

The diminutive Professor stopped grinning, looking back at the previous pages before flipping back. Hermione gave him a worried look as Flitwick looked at Harry with an unreadable expression.

"That's exactly what the notes explain," he spoke, rather like he'd just read something very frightening.

"But that's good, Professor," Hermione grinned at him, but he shook his head.

"You don't understand, Miss Granger." It was certainly the first time Harry had heard a Professor say that. "You said that Albus was the secret keeper for this place you want to use?" They both nodded. "The notes only show how to remove the charm if the secret keeper has died. This would do nothing if that person still lived."

A chill ran through Harry. This didn't make sense. Why would Dumbledore have left instructions on how to lift a Fidelius Charm after the secret keeper died when he was the secret keeper himself? Did he know that such a thing would be needed? He had never given Harry reason to suspect he knew he was going to die, had he? Harry searched his memories franticly, but found nothing that could help him understand this.

"It's fine, Professor," Hermione seemed to recover first, though her voice was still shaky. "If Professor D-Dumbledore left it for us, then I think we should make the best use of it that we c-can."

"I need you to come with me, Professor Flitwick," Harry said, managing to keep the uneasiness out of his own voice.

"What? I can't leave!" Flitwick jumped out of his chair, looking at them incredulously. "I can't leave my students! Who might they replace me with? Another Death Eather? Dolores Umbridge?"

Harry's hackles rose at the last name, but he kept his voice even. "Professor, no one is going to replace you because no one will know you've gone." He looked over at Hermione, who took over.

"Professor, I'll stay here and take your place." She removed a rather significant jar of Polyjuice Potion (which she had found in the attic of Grimmauld Place) from bag she was carrying. "I've got about two weeks worth, so I'll be transformed into you until you get back. No one will suspect you've really gone!"

He was shaking his gray head, mumbling more refusals, when Harry spoke up again. "Professor, we need you. You can save a lot of people from the Death Eaters, including a number of Ravenclaws that came with us. We aren't going to be able to hide much longer, Professor."

"Please, Professor," Hermione implored.

Flitwick looked at the midnight blue carpet, heaving a deep sigh. "Very well, you two, very well. I'll go."

They spent the next half hour arranging things. Packing a bag for Flitwick, dropping the old Professor's hairs into the potion, reviewing Hermione on what she would need to know about the changes at the school.

Harry watched as Flitwick explained his normal routine to her. His stomach was tied in knots. It felt like he was throwing her to the wolves, especially with Snape wandering around. Again he found himself wondering if there was a better way to do this, but he could come up with no rational plan that would work as well.

"Alright then," Flitwick said, drawing Harry back, "you take good care of yourself, Miss Granger. I couldn't forgive myself if something were to happen to my best student."

She knelt down and hugged the grey haired wizard. "Thank you, Professor. I'll see you when you get back."

His face became rather flushed and he grinned a bit as he made his way toward Harry. "Well, Mr. Potter, let's be off."

Harry looked at Hermione again, then back at Flitwick. "Can you give me just a minute, Professor?" At the smaller man's smile Harry walked over to his friend. She was fidgeting a bit, and he could see a tiny glistening in her eyes.

"Scared?"

She forced a weak smile. "A little. I know it was my idea and all, but now that I'm here, it's all a little nerve wracking."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Galleon. "You still have yours?" She quickly pulled out her own twin of the gold coin, one of the ones she enchanted back in their fifth year for the DA. "If something happens, let us know."

Nodding, she reinforced her smile. "I'll be alright, Harry."

They looked at each other for a moment before Harry reached out and hugged her. "You be careful, Hermione. Ron's mad enough at me as it is."

She laughed a bit into his shoulder as she hugged him back. "I'm sure I'll be fine."

"I'll be back for you when Flitwick's finished the charm."

They stepped back from each other and Harry moved over toward the waiting Flitwick. "C'mon, Professor, you've got a house to protect." With a final look back at Hermione, who waved at him, he threw the Invisibility Cloak over himself and the small wizard and ventured back into the dark corridors of Hogwarts.

AN: Short chapter, I know. I had originally thought of Hermione performing the Fidelius, but I thought that might be a bit of a stretch, even for her. Besides, I think it's a little more interesting to have tension from her being alone and out of contact in a Hogwarts that's under Death Eater control.

Some of you will have noticed by now that snippets of things from Deathly Hallows have made their way into the story. This story is more a divergence from cannon that a flat out alternate universe. Voldemort still took over the Ministry, but he waited for Dumbledore to fall before making his move. Hence why ol' Voldie is in power a little later than in the actual book.

I still haven't decided what changed exactly about the Horcrux investigation, but I do know that Dumbledore didn't have all the info he had in cannon, thus Harry knows even less about their identities. He will eventually search them out, but not until he can secure a base of operations.

Anyway, thanks to my first reviewer, gem x. Hope you continue to enjoy the story!

Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next chapter!

Gunso