A/N: I know I said I wouldn't be doing this very often, but I lied. Sorry! I just wanted to give you guys a heads up that I am going to post the next two chapters today because I want you to see that this is going somewhere. I promise I have an end in mind and I hope you will stick with me. This chapter starts the official plot. The next few will start the romance parts between our two lovely main characters. The reason that it is so stretched out is because I wanted to give you a feel of the difference in personality the characters have in this story as opposed to a universe where Harry's the Chosen One. I am hoping this will make them seem more believeable. let me know if I am succeeding or failing miserably.
One last note, the M raiting will start in with the the romance parts. If that is what you are waiting on, trust me, it's coming! Thanks for your patience! Please R&R!!
"Ouch!" Ron whispered, muffling a curse in his scarf.
"What happened?" Hermione's voice sounded worriedly through the scarves.
"Nothing, 'Mione," Harry muttered exasperated. "He stubbed his toe."
It had been less than thirty minutes since they had left for Hogsmeade. Hermione was hold up in her dormitory with the doors locked. Wards were set up on the stairs and would surely tell her of the arrival of anyone. Yet she could not quell her nerves. She had already asked them over fifty times what was happening when she heard them trip or stumble under the cloak that the two had all but outgrown. "I'm sorry," she hissed. A book was large book was spread open on her bed. One side showed the view from Harry's lapel pin and the other Ron's. However, she was only able to make things out every once in a while as their movement was making everything blurry. The darkness in the passage didn't help either. "You guys need to walk more smoothly! I can't see a thing!"
Ron's annoyance with her was obvious. "We know Hermione!"
"Sorry!" she apologized again, chewing on her thumbnail.
"Now cut it! We're coming to the end of the tunnel."
It had taken them longer than usual to get to the shop that had once been Honeydukes. The place still smelled sweet enough to send a diabetic into a coma, but it was mixed with the stench of mold, dust, and the vague sense that something in the room was rotting. Harry remembered when they had used the passage that his father had told him about in their first year to sneak in and swipe sweets. Then, the store above them had been filled with life. Dust had rained down on them as they crossed the room as it fell back from the stomping feet above them. A gentle rumbling lent life to the warm shadows of the cellar. Everything was now quiet and cold and stale. When the owner and his wife were killed, they had taken all of the love with them, leaving nothing but an empty shell.
The dust in the shop was so thick in the shop above that they left a trail of awkward footprints that were only slightly obscured by the trailing cloak. Brightly colored sweets were bleached with age and most seemed to have been chewed on by various animals over the years. As they made their way over to door, someone walked across the light casting them into shadow.
"Any movement in there yet?" A gruff male voice asked.
"None yet," came another voice, slightly higher and more nervous then the first.
"It's only a matter of time. Keep your eye out and your ears clear. I doubt they would come unconcealed." The first man sighed and shifted his weight.
"Bloody waste of time as far as I'm concerned," the second man spat. "I don't think there is a passage under this bloody shop. Hogwarts is gone."
"Nothing disappears, Malfoy, nothing, you hear? So if our Master wants to take the rat's advice who are we to question Him? He is all powerful and we are but humble servants who are lucky to walk in His shadow."
There was a moment of silence. Ron and Harry barely breathed as they waited, not having expected to be greeted right out of the gate. A few moments later, Malfoy continued, "I understand the importance of finding a way into the school, but what would he assign me here for? I would have though that one of the new recruits would have been more than sufficient to watch over this. I deserve at least a supervisory job, Avery, and you know it! This is an insult to the purity of my blood."
Avery chuckled. "Perhaps he thinks that you are thinking a little too much of your wings, Lucifer."
Malfoy snorted. "Any other news?"
"Nothing I can say here. I hear your son is turning some heads as an apprentice at the Muggle Control office."
"He is a good boy."
"You made a good decision teaching him at home. You can't imagine some of the things that Crabbe's boy is being forced to swallow at Durmstrang."
Malfoy made a noise of agreement before letting the silence between them grow uncomfortably drawn out.
"Indeed," Avery stepped back a couple of feet. "I have to be going to the others. Remember what you do if you find something?"
They could almost hear Malfoy roll his eyes. "I remember."
"Good man." With that Avery strode off.
Harry and Ron were barely breathing under the safety of the cloak. They shot each other a worried look under the cloak. Harry put a hand firmly on Ron's upper arm feeling the tense muscles twitch with his touch. He jerked his head and began to pull Ron back to the basement stairs, pulling his wand and concentrating harder than ever on an unspoken concealment charm to cover their tracks.
Once they were safely back below the trap door, they gratefully pulled off the cloak, both sweating profusely. "So I guess that our trips are out," Hermione said.
"I guess so," Harry said, leaning up against the stone wall and sliding down to a seated position on the floor.
"Well, that was bloody useless," Ron huffed, sitting across from Harry and letting his head rest against the cold stone.
"Actually, it was fairly enlightening," Hermione uttered.
"What are you on about?"
"Don't you see?" she said impatiently. "There is a mole in the Order, someone who knows about all of the secret passages in and out of the castle."
"That could be anyone, though," Ron whined.
"No, Ron, it couldn't. As far as I know, only those who have had access to the Marauder's Map would have known about those passages. They aren't even in Hogwarts, A History. Filch doesn't even know about the passage into Honeydukes. That one has only been discovered by nine people that I know of."
"You aren't suggesting that it was one of the Marauders, Fred or George?" Harry burst, frustrated. "You aren't suggesting my dad or any of my uncles are you?"
"Or my brothers?"
" Well it wasn't one of us, was it? It had to be one of them, and someone has to know!"
"Who are we going to tell?" Harry asked. "Who will believe us?"
"Maybe we should talk to Professor Black."
Harry laughed. "If we tell Sirius, he will take the Map, and then we won't be able to do this at all."
"I think it's a little late for that," A said a couple feet down the passage.
Ron and Harry jumped up so quickly that they both hit their heads on the ceiling of the low passage. In front of them, none other than Sirius Black slid into the light of their wands and out of the shadow. His face was stern, but his eyes held a strange mixture of pride, disapproval, and mischief.
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