Chapter 6

Some things never change

After dinner we went and visited Ron again. He was awake this time and was obviously feeling better. We could tell by the amount of food he was shoveling into his mouth.

Relief washed over us knowing that he was alright. We sat down around him and broke him the news about Lavender. He didn't seem at all disappointed at the news. In fact his mood seemed to brighten after that.

We had seen Lavender at dinner glaring at her food. Her eyes were puffy from crying. Parvati Patil had told Hermione that Lavender had spent the morning crying and throwing things around the dormitory. She clearly wasn't taking this very well and her out burst was starting to scare me a little. She had sent Harry a letter saying that clearly Ron did not feel for her the way he did for "someone else" and that it wouldn't work.

When it was getting late, Madam Pomfrey kicked us out. The good thing was Ron would be dismissed in the morning. He was disappointed that he couldn't get more time off school. We knew things were definitely going to be very awkward around the common room now.

Ron met us at breakfast the next morning. He was already stuffing his face when we got there. Ginny and I sat on one side of the table while Harry and Hermione sat either side of Ron. Lavender glared angrily when she saw us and stormed past to the other end of the table.

"Remind me again how we broke up" Ron said to Harry.

Ginny and I just laughed, we knew Ron had no idea about what he had said in his sleep and we weren't going to tell him. Harry thought it would be better that way.

The mail arrived and I wasn't overly happy when I saw Rosey flying towards me. I groaned when she dropped the letter into my breakfast.

"What is it?" Ginny asked.

"An unwanted letter from someone unknown" I told her.

"Are you going to read it?" she asked.

"Probably not" I grumbled.

I picked it up and shoved it in my pocket with out even glancing at what was written on it. When we were had eaten we all walked together to our classes, saying goodbye to Ginny on the way.

Our herbology class had been cancelled when one of the first year classes had released something into the room as a prank. It had all gone terribly wrong. Professor Sprout had gone off at Ron because the prank had originated at the Twin's store.

Hermione being Hermione insisted that we study for our upcoming exams. We all agreed we had been slacking off on our studying over the holidays and probably should have been taking out studying more seriously. I walked up to my dormitory to get some of my books. I sat down on the bed and pulled the letter out of my pocket.

I fought internally with myself about whether I should read it or just throw it in the bin. I opened the letter and the part of me that wanted to read it won.

Dear Kim

I am not writing to give you excuses.

I am writing to ask you to forgive me

Unforeseeable circumstances stopped me from getting to see you the other night.

The meeting was not and never was a joke and I wanted to be there

Sorry could not explain how terrible I feel about all of this

I don't expect you to reply, I understand how you must feel.

So I will now leave you alone.

I scrunched the letter up and threw it into the bin beside my bed angrily. Reading that letter had only made me angry again. He had no idea how I felt, how could he. The worst part was that I had put my trust in this guy and he just threw it back at me. I didn't care how sorry he was. I grabbed up my books, ink and quills and stormed back down to where the other where waiting for me.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked when he saw the look on my face.

"I read that stupid letter from who ever that loser is" I snapped slightly.

I saw Ron stiffen out of the corner of my eye and Hermione shift slightly. I had forgotten I hadn't told either of them about the whole thing.

We walked down to the library and I told them the whole story from beginning to the end. From the first letter I had received right up to my reading of the final letter.

"And I was stupid enough to go along and meet the guy who didn't even show up" I finished.

"You're not stupid for trusting people" Hermione told me.

I looked at her a little shocked; it was the nicest thing she had said to me since we were 12. I looked over at Harry who just shrugged at her.

Ron still hadn't said anything about it, I didn't think twice about it. If it was me I'd wanna stay out of it, he was probably trying not to say something that would make matters worse.

We sat in the library until dinner just studying; it wasn't as boring as I had originally thought it would be. We actually covered a lot more than what we had actually learned.

We took our things back to the common room before heading down to dinner. Hermione and Harry went on ahead while I went upstairs to put my things away. Ron hung back and waited for me. I went to walk past him thinking he would just follow me, but he stayed still. I turned back to see what was wrong. He looked like he was internally arguing with himself. I walked over and placed my hand on his arm. He looked down at it and then up at me.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" I asked.

"I'm trying to decide whether or not I should tell someone something" he replied.

"It must be important if you're concentrating that much on it" I smiled at him.

"Yeah they're really important to me" he smiled back.

"I'm sure they'll understand" I pushed him playfully.

"Well I hope your right" he chuckled.

It saddened me a little knowing that he cared for someone so much, but on the other hand I was happy for him. I went to walk away again, but he still didn't move.

"What's up now?" I asked him with a slight laugh.

"Well Kim, you see…..the thing is… I wrote you those letters", he muttered.

"What?" I stuttered.

"I wrote you those letters and I was going to tell you the other night, but you know about the whole love potion and then poisoning thing got in the way" he ran his hand through his hair.

"Why would you do that?" I shouted at him.

I had no idea why I was getting so angry. It felt like he was playing some big game with my feelings. First there was the kiss at Christmas and now this.

"Because I didn't know how to tell you!" he shouted back.

"It's not hard Ronald!" I snapped, "You could have just come out with it instead of messing with my feelings"

"I didn't want it to ruin our friendship!"

"Ok so what was Lavender then? You were sending me letters while she was your girlfriend" I pointed out.

He thought hard about how he was going to answer that. He paused for a moment and then spoke.

"I still didn't know how you felt about me. I know now it was stupid, but I was trying to make you jealous" he explained.

"And you thought making me jealous would help how?" I asked angrily.

"I don't know!" he yelled.

"Well when you figure it out come and find me" I said before storming out of the room.

I didn't bother going to dinner, instead I went to a place I knew I could be alone. I walked down the corridor repeating in my head the same thing three times. I sighed in relief when the door appeared. I snuck inside closing the door quietly behind me.

I looked around the room and found everything I needed. There was a bed set up in the corner, a desk and chair against a wall, a lounge set up by a fire place and a table that already had dinner set on it.

I sat down and ate by myself before sitting by the fire and reading a book of one of the book shelves. I didn't have any plans on going back to the common room tonight. I was still angry at Ron, but part of me was overjoyed that he had feelings for me too.

It made me wonder though about whom else knew Ron was sending those letters. I had my suspicions that Harry was aware of it and I was definitely going to talk to him about it in the morning.

I didn't sleep in the bed; I fell asleep on the lounge in front of the fire. I was too comfortable to move so I didn't. I woke up and looked at my watch; it was almost time for breakfast. I got changed and headed down to the great hall. I was one of the first people there when I arrived. I found a seat and ate. Ginny came running over to me throwing herself at me into a hug.

"Where in the world were you?" she cried hitting me in the arm.

"Ow! I was in the room of requirement" I told her.

"Why?" she asked sitting down beside me.

I was about to explain when I saw him coming. He was walking with Harry and Hermione. He looked at me long and hard before lowering his head and sitting down quietly.

"I'll tell you later" I said to Ginny.

I stood up and looked down at a sitting Harry. I nodded towards the door before asking my question.

"Can I talk to you please?" I asked him.

He nodded and stood back up. We walked out of the great hall and down to the main entrance. I made sure no one else was listening before speaking.

"You knew didn't you" I stated.

"Knew about what?" he asked.

"You knew Ron was writing those letters and you didn't tell me" I slapped his arm.

"Ok maybe I did, but he swore me to secrecy" Harry defended himself.

"Your supposed to be my friend" I hit him again.

"But he's my best friend too".

He held up his hands like he was afraid I was going to hit him again, but I didn't. Harry was one of my closest friends and because of Ginny he knew I liked Ron.

"He really does like you" Harry tried assuring me.

Part of me wanted to believe it, but there was something inside that just couldn't get a grasp on the fact of him feeling the same way. It was like all the years of telling myself it would never happen were stopping me from accepting what might be.

We walked back to breakfast and sat back down. Ron still wouldn't look me in the eye; in fact he wouldn't even look in my general direction.

We went to all our classes and he didn't speak a word unless spoken too. When dinner finally came he had barely said ten words to anyone and none to me at all. It was beginning to get just a little weird.

We were studying of potions topics by the fire when he finally spoke to me. Hermione had gone in search of some more ink and Harry pretended that he wasn't listening. It really caught me by surprise.

"I'm sorry for everything" he mumbled just loud enough for me to hear.

"It's ok, I'm over it" I brushed it off.

I really didn't want to fight with him anymore. The fighting seemed to hurt more than the actual lying anyway.

He moved so he was sitting next to me on the floor. For the first time in the whole day he actually looked into my eyes.

"Do you think maybe one day we could give us a go?" he asked in almost a whisper.

I looked at the sincerity in his eyes. I wanted to say yes and throw myself into his arms, but I knew I couldn't do that. I knew that things were still raw between him and Lavender and I wasn't one for hurting people who were already down enough.

"Look Ron, as much as I want to say yes I just cant right now", I told him.

He sighed and rested his head in his hands. It hurt me so much to see him like that.

"It's not a no Ron, it's more of a just not now" I explained.

He nodded silently and went back to his studies. He seemed a little happier than at my first explanation. I looked up at Harry who nodded at me, letting me know I had done the right thing. The right thing for me at least, there was no way I was going to be the rebound girl. If there was going to be and us between Ron and myself, then we were going to do it right.

I didn't sleep at all that night, all I could think about was how I had just shut down the one guy I had like for what felt like forever.

Classes seemed to flow together through the weeks. Before we knew it, it was Easter and that meant when the break was over our exams would begin.

Things between Ron and I were slowly getting back to what they were. The awkwardness had started to go away and we were able to hang out like we did before all of this happened.

We could feel a change brewing around us, but we just didn't know what kind of change was coming. Even Hermione was talking to me more and that was the most unexpected of all.

Harry and Ginny had been getting closer as well. Harry and Malfoy had gotten into a fight which didn't end well for Harry. He had used one of the spells he had found in his potions book on Draco and got himself into great trouble especially with Snape who found the two boys in the bathroom. After the incident, Harry decided that the book had to go. Ginny took him up to the room of requirement and the two of them got rid of the book. We don't know what else happened up there, but things were different between them when they got back.

I had tried to get Ginny to spill on the subject, but she wouldn't budge. She wouldn't tell me a thing about it and there was no way Harry was going to tell any of us.

Harry's work with Dumbledore was also becoming more dangerous. He still hadn't managed to get the key memory that Dumbledore was after and Harry was getting desperate.

We were sitting in the common room one Saturday when inspiration struck him.

"I know what I have to do!" he exclaimed.

His out burst made us all jump a foot in the air in surprise. Hermione literally threw her book at him she was that shocked.

"I know how to get the memory" he elaborated this time.

"Well don't leave us hanging" I laughed.

We waited to hear what he had to say. Instead of telling us, he ran up to the boys dormitory and returned with a familiar little vile of liquid in his hands.

"All I need is a bit of luck" he smirked.

"That's brilliant Harry, why didn't we think of this before?" Ron asked.

"You know what, I really don't know" Harry laughed.

We watched Harry take a big swig of the liquid luck and waited to see what would happen. A big smile slowly appeared on his face.

"How do you feel?" Hermione asked after a few minutes.

"I feel great!" Harry cheered.

He stood up triumphantly and marched out of the common room. We looked around at each other and laughed slightly. Ginny joined us not long after Harry left and together we waited up to see when he would come back.

It was getting late and Harry still hadn't returned. Ginny had long since gone to bed and Ron, Hermione and I were having trouble staying awake ourselves.

I could feel myself dozing off as I lay on the floor by the fire. I don't know when, but eventually I fell asleep.

I was awoken by an excited Harry. He proceeded to wake the others to tell us what had happened.

"I did it guys, I got the memory" he grinned.

"That's great" I congratulated him, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"So what happens now?" Hermione asked him.

"Well after the break Dumbledore is taking me on a mission with him to see if we can track down a horcrux" he explained.

He told us about what happened earlier that night. From where he had met up with Slughorn to where he had gone and visited Hagrid. He even told us about the funeral they had held for Aragog, Hagrid's spider friend we had all been acquainted with in our second year.

Neither Ron nor I complained about the loss of Aragog, we both found spiders to be utterly disgusting and wouldn't miss him one bit. Hermione thought it was sweet of Hagrid to hold a funeral for his friend, but even she was a bit squeamish when it came to spiders.

"Hagrid gave him a bit of alcohol after the funeral and he just opened up about the whole thing with Riddle" Harry explained.

Once we ha got all the details from Harry, we said our good nights and went to bed.

The holidays came and went, but we stayed at Hogwarts this time. Harry was trying to be as prepared as possible for when he went with Dumbledore. We helped as much as we could, but when we didn't know what to expect it made it harder.

When the night came, we wished Harry luck and watched him head for Dumbledore's office. He still had no idea what Dumbledore had in store for him, but he hoped that he was ready fro what ever was coming. Things didn't feel right around the school; it felt like something was going to happen and it wasn't going to be good.

After dinner we headed back to the common rooms. The halls were eerily quiet. We stopped walking when we could hear footsteps heading our way. Ron, Hermione and I hid behind one of the armor statues and stayed as quiet as possible.

A group of dark figures moved past us at haste. They were lead at the front by Draco and it looked like they were headed for the astronomy tower, but we didn't know why. What we did know was that they shouldn't have been here in the school. My first instinct was to find Professor Magonagall, so we ran back to the great hall hoping she hadn't left yet.

We were in luck; she was still sitting at the teachers table at the front of the Hall. We ran up to her and hurriedly told her what we had seen. She stood up immediately and gathered the teachers and followed us to where we had seen the figures.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion after that. We heard screaming coming from one of the floors above us and then out the window we watched as our head master fell to the ground.

"No!" I cried.

We ran over to the window and were just in time to see Dumbledore's body hit the ground. Professor Magonagall let out a cry and we all ran down to the grounds.

We all ran as fast as our feet would carry us down to the court yard, I couldn't help but think that this couldn't be happening. This wasn't supposed to be happening.

We weren't the only ones that had seen what had happened. When we reached the court yard we found many of the other student's sad gazes falling upon the body in front of us.

Dumbledore lay lifeless on the ground in front of us. No one could move a muscle; all we could do was watch. I could feel the tears already streaming down my face.

There was another loud scream that made us all look up to the astronomy tower. There in the observation desk was Bellatrix Lestrange and other death eaters. I could see both Snape and Draco Malfoy amongst them. Harry had been right, Malfoy was up to something and Snape was in on it.

Bellatrix cackled and pointed her wand into the air sending a red light into the sky. We all watched as Voldemort's dark mark appeared in the sky above the school.

Harry appeared beside us. He rushed over to the side of Dumbledore's body. I felt useless watching Harry; it hurt all of us to see all of this.

Ginny reached Harry's side and held him tightly as he cried. Ron wrapped his arms around Hermione and me as we too let out our sadness.

The others raised there wands and removed the dark mark from the sky. We didn't expect what Harry did next.

He got to his feet and ran after the fleeing death eaters. He sent curses flying after them. I wanted to try and stop him, but we knew there was no use.

We were still trying to come to terms with the fact that this amazing wizard was never going to grace this school with his presence again. We were never going to see that twinkle in his eye over his half moon spectacles like we had grown a custom to over the years or hear his bizarre welcome back speeches after the summer breaks.

Things were just never going to be the same again at Hogwarts.

Hagrid found Harry later, lying by the forest in tears. It was hard to listen to him describe it.

Due to the events, Professor Magonagall and the other teachers had come to the decision to cancel the end of year exams. They felt the students had been traumatized enough by the events to be put through any examinations. We were all very grateful.

Harry didn't speak much to anyone; we would cringe up if anyone so much as mentioned what had happened. We felt like he was blaming himself for the events that had unfolded. He spent most of his time sitting in professor Dumbledore's office staring at the painting that had been added to the wall of headmasters.

Professor Magonagall had questioned Harry about the events while we were there. She thought he would be more comfortable with us there to support him.

He told her about some of the details about the mission, but mainly told her what he had seen while hidden in the astronomy tower and how Snape had betrayed them all.

"He was in on it all along, Malfoy's mission was to kill Dumbledore and when he couldn't do it Snape fulfilled his unbreakable vow and did it for him" his voice cracked as he spoke.

The memory was still very raw in Harry's mind. Draco Malfoy and Professor Snape had since fled the school grounds and hadn't been seen since that night. We hadn't expected either of them to show their faces, not now that the ministry was looking for them and the members of the Order of the Phoenix.

The Funeral was held on the school grounds looking out to the lake and the forbidden forest. We could see the centaur that lived in the forest emerge to pay their respects for the fallen wizard. Even the merpeople surfaced as a sign of respect.

Everyone from the minister of Magic, to the order of the phoenix came to see Dumbledore and bid him farewell. He was such an influential wizard in the magical society; he would be dearly missed by almost everyone.

Dumbledore was laid to rest on the small island in the middle of the lake on the Hogwarts grounds. Everyone thought it fitting for Dumbledore to rest in the place he treasured the most, in the school that he loved dearly.

At the end of the funeral the students were dismissed and allowed to go home early. The events that had fallen upon us, well it was hard for us all we thought as we packed our trunks. We rode the Hogwarts express back to London and just talked about anything that would distract us from what had happened.

"I'm not going back" Harry declared.

"We know" Hermione told him.

"You guy will be alright, your strong enough to get through it" he told us.

"You really are thick sometimes Harry" I smiled at him.

"You do realize your not going to be able to do this all on your own" Hermione added.

"We're going with you mate" Ron shoved his friend playfully before adding, "but don't tell mum yet".

"I can't ask you guys to do that" he frowned.

"Harry you aren't asking us, we're telling you" I laughed.

"Well you know this is going to be dangerous" he told us.

We all nodded after all he wasn't telling us anything that we didn't already know. We had known this was coming, we just hadn't expected to be facing it with out Dumbledore's guiding hands.

When we got back to Kings Cross station, we said good bye to each other. We would be going out separate ways until Ron's older brothers wedding. Hermione and I had sat down and talked for the first time in many years and we had both agreed that our families were going to be in a lot of danger especially since they were Muggles.

She had told me that just before she was going to leave she was going to erase their memories and send them to visit relatives in Australia. She said she would change them back one day, but not until after the danger was gone.

I had to admit her plan was a good idea, but I didn't want to go as far as to erase my family's memories. I was planning on sitting them down and telling them that their lives were in danger and that it would be a wise idea to maybe go and stay with my mother's cousin in America. I had no idea how they were going to take the news. I thought they might take it better if I didn't tell them that I was going off with Harry, Ron and Hermione to look for objects to destroy so we could bring down Lord Voldemort though.

I hugged the others good bye and said a quick hello to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. I knew I would be seeing them again soon, but it wasn't going to be soon enough.