Ron woke into the eerie silence of Grimmauld Place. He was lying in the bed of Sirius Black's old bedroom with Hermione still sleeping next to him. They had at first each chosen a separate bedroom to sleep in but Hermione had suddenly came in and had ask to stay with him for the night, not wanting to be alone in this empty house. Ron had been quick to allow her to spend the night with him.
Hermione suddenly gave a small whimper and Ron looked over at her, worried. A single tear slid from underneath her eyelid and rolled down her cheek as she whispered 'Harry', which felt like a stab to the heart for Ron. He knew that she was probably just worried sick about Harry but Ron couldn't help but think that he was once again being overshadowed by his best friend. It was the young ginger's greatest fear to have Hermione choose Harry over him.
Ron got out of bed and stretched. He put on his shoes and went downstairs. The somber kitchen greeted him and Ron could see grey clouds covering the sky outside the window. His mind wandered toward his family and fear gripped his insides. What has happened to them? Were they still alive? Ron did not want to think about the horrible news that was possibly waiting for him.
Small footsteps were coming down the stairs and Ron whipped out his wand, ready for any attack that may come his way. He needed not to worry: it turned out only to be Kreacher, clutching a copy of the Daily Prophet as he made his way to his makeshift home in a small cupboard. Strongly suspecting that it was today's copy of the newspaper Ron approached the elderly house-elf.
"Why is the blood-traitor here? If he is here then my so-called master and the Mudblood must be here as well," Kreacher said.
"Don't call Hermione a Mudblood!" Ron snapped. "And, no, Harry's not here. Mind giving me that Daily Prophet?"
Kreacher clutched it closer to his small body. "No," he replied coldly.
"Give it here, Kreacher, and no one's gonna get hurt and by no one I mean you," Ron threatened.
Kreacher ducked past him and tried to hide in his cupboard but Ron was quicker: he pointed his wand at Kreacher's back and exclaimed, "Accio, Daily Prophet!"
The newspaper flew out of the house-elf's hands and zoomed into Ron's. Kreacher gave a strangled cry and stomped all the way to his cupboard, locking himself inside. Ron rolled his eyes at the house-elf's antics as he unfolded the Daily Prophet.
"Oh please, you'll have it back when I'm done with it," Ron said loudly. He glanced at the front page and his heart nearly stopped beating at the sight of the headline: SEVERUS SNAPE: HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS.
Too shocked to react, Ron slowly sat down at the kitchen table, reading the article. The nightmare that was called reality kept growing worse as the days went by.
Hermione abruptly woke up, her face wet with tears. She had dreamt that they had found Harry but they had found him lying dead on the floor with Snape and Voldemort standing over him, laughing. They had then levitated Harry into Hermione's arms and she had begun to sob at the loss of her best friend, the one person she truly considered to be her brother. But it had not taken long for Voldemort and Snape to turn their wands upon her and Ron and a bright flash of green light obscured Hermione's vision, causing her to wake up with a start.
Trembling slightly, Hermione dried her face with the bed sheet and saw that Ron was gone. Frightened, she jumped out of bed and quickly put her shoes on before racing downstairs. She went all the way down to the kitchen and cried out in relief when she saw Ron sitting at the kitchen table, a copy of the Daily Prophet lying flat in front of him. Her cry made him jerk his head up and Hermione rushed toward him and threw her arms around him. She felt Ron slowly wrap his arms around her and after a minute of prolonged hug Hermione pulled away.
"Don't just leave like that, Ron. I thought something had happened to you," she said.
"Hermione, if something had happened to me, why would the enemy take me and leave you? You're a Muggle-born; Death Eaters have zero tolerance for you guys," Ron said reasonably.
"Well, I don't know! They could have different plans for me!" Hermione snapped irritably.
"I don't know what kind of plans they have for us but I can tell you what plans they have for Hogwarts," Ron replied.
"And what would those be?"
Ron closed the newspaper and showed the front page to Hermione. She gasped in horror as she read the headline, not daring to believe her eyes.
"Th-This can't be," Hermione said. "I don't believe it."
"Believe it. Snape's taking over the school and the students are now forced to attend and all Muggle-borns are officially expelled and must register at the Ministry though I doubt that the registration is anything good. It looks like you're officially on the run, Hermione," Ron replied, opening the Daily Prophet.
Hermione wasn't listening; her mind was working. If Snape was now headmaster that meant he had to remain at Hogwarts at all times in order to be his master's eyes and ears. And since Snape took Harry and had to keep an eye on him then there was only one place Harry could be.
"Ron! I think I know where Harry is!" Hermione exclaimed triumphantly.
"Brilliant! Where?" Ron asked. Comprehension dawned on his face. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "Hogwarts!"
"That's right. Snape is keeping Harry prisoner and since he's now headmaster he has to keep an eye on the school as well so where else would Harry be?"
"On Mars."
"Not funny, Ron."
"Lighten up, will you?"
Hermione gave him a look that she knew would put Mrs Weasley to shame and Ron seem to shrink in his seat. He then straightened up and began to fold the Daily Prophet closed.
"Where did you get that?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Nicked it off Kreacher. God knows where he got this; little git probably stole it like he steals everything in this house," Ron replied.
"Ron! How many times do I have to tell you to be kind to Kreacher?" Hermione said reproachfully.
"Don't get your knickers in a twist. I was going to give it back when I was done. You should be glad that I took this newspaper from him or else we would have never known where to find Harry," Ron argued, sounding slightly frustrated.
Ignoring Hermione's glower, Ron got to his feet. Hermione watched him deliver the Daily Prophet to Kreacher's room. He opened the cabinet door and Hermione heard a string of profanities being yelled by Kreacher before Ron hurled the newspaper at him and slammed the cabinet door shut, drowning out the house-elf's voice.
"You could have handled that a bit better," Hermione scolded. "No wonder he doesn't like you."
"He doesn't like you either thanks to the whole pureblood supremacy thing," Ron replied. "I'll be nice to a house-elf when it's nice to me. Look at Dobby: he's great to us so I have no problem with him."
"You need to treat everyone with respect and dignity no matter what. Take a leaf out of Dumbledore's book," Hermione said.
"And look where it got him; he ended up hiring an undercover Death Eater who later murdered him. Bad example, Hermione."
"No, it isn't. Trusting Snape was a grave error of judgement; treating him with respect wasn't. I don't expect you to make the distinction between the two but it's the reality of things."
Ron remained silent, clearly not wanting to argue. Hermione watched him patiently as he was trying to make sense of her logic.
"Don't strain your brain trying to understand," she finally said. "We need to find a way to sneak back into Hogwarts without being detected. Any ideas?"
"I was hoping that you would be the one to provide them," Ron replied truthfully.
"One thing that I know for certain is that the security at the school will be heightened," Hermione continued, preventing herself from rolling her eyes with difficulty. "I wouldn't be surprised if Snape has had dementors re-stationed at Hogwarts like in our third year."
"That wouldn't be good," Ron said, swallowing hard.
"No, it wouldn't be," Hermione agreed, nodding her head. "I also expect a couple of Death Eaters to hang about as well. Not just at Hogwarts but in Hogsmeade too. I'm also positive that all seven secret passageways in the school have now been blocked."
"Blimey! You-Know-Who should ask you to join his ranks; you've really thought of everything on how to keep us out of the school," Ron said teasingly.
"Ha ha. We have to think of every possible security tactic in order to find a loophole. So far, it's airtight."
"We will find a way to rescue Harry, right?"
"Of course we will. I hope."
They both fell silent as Hermione slowly sank onto a chair. The future did not look very bright in their eyes as they contemplated the dangerous road ahead.
Sorry it took so long. Lots of homework.
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