A/N: This undoubtedly is my favourite chapter so far. I won't say anything else and leave you all to read and rush, I've got my baby's b'day to plan today.

Will revert back to your message at the end of the day.

Happy reading! Don't forget that review please!

All Character rights belong to JKR.

Chapter 12: The Predator and the Prey

Harry sat in the empty common room all by himself. For anyone who dropped in unannounced, it would seem as if he was working on his DADA assignment but over the foot long scroll that barely had a few lines scribbled on it, lay an old parchment which was at present his sole focus point.

The various corridors and passages across the castle were mainly empty except for two pairs of prefects, Slytherin and Ravenclaw who patrolled them. And there were a couple of Aurors and two teachers. But Harry's concern was elsewhere. He noticed two footprints walking slowly across the fourth floor corridor. A pair of prefects would be intersecting them after three tapestries if they did not walk fast... He watched with baited breath as the footprints of the Ravenclaw prefects came closer still and then casually crossed the ones he was watching and leave. He released a long held breath as the two began their walk again.

He had done quite a few crazy things along with Ron in their school life and many a times risked their lives too. But this he really believed was as barmy as it could get. It could not jut risk Ron's expulsion from the school but have serious repercussions on the Order's plans if it failed. But Ron had been adamant to the point of being illogical, so he had been forced to agree. Glancing at the still moving figures, he looked back on the day a week ago when Ron had disclosed his intentions to him.

"Harry I've got something really important to tell you." Harry looked up from the Prince's Potion book to look at his best friend. They were enjoying the last of the year's sunshine by the lake before the wintery October approached with all its chilled fury.

He had noticed Ron looking particularly disturbed for the past few days. Even now he was chewing on his lower lip and concentrating hard on the ripples created in the water by the Giant Squid.

"Yeah Ron?" he asked, sitting up straight. The sun and the book had made him pleasantly drowsy.

"I- What happens if I take her out of her room and let her out for a while?" All traces of sleep vanished at that single statement.

"W-WHAT?! ARE YOU BARMY?!"

Ron continued to look at the lake as he replied. "Barmy... yes that's barmy an idea, isn't it?"

"Look Ron, I have no clue why you would think about it. All this protection and all these measures, you know the reasons mate. Why would you think of getting her out?"

"I'm just curious, it can't really be pleasant stuck inside for so many months now." he replied softly.

"What has she been telling you Ron?" Harry asked with his brows furrowed. Was this a trick? Was she manipulating Ron to escape? But that would be insane. Even if she didn't care about Ron's expulsion by violating Dumbledore's orders at least she would be concerned about her own safety, wouldn't she?

"Nothing specific... It's just that she spends a lot of time in that Pensive living in her own memories. I don't suppose that's good. She looks sick, like the confinement is draining her life out of her. Talks a lot about her past, asks how it feels to walk around the school, feel the grass under your feet, see other people, be free..." he murmured as if immersed in thoughts.

"Okay I get it but Ron she is not supposed to be seen."

"She won't. We'll use the cloak and go in the middle of the night."

"Mate looks like you've given it a thought already. What if she tries to escape?"

"She won't, where will she go? And ...I have a plan for that too."

"I still think this is crazy."

"I know."

"It can get us expelled Ron and what is the guarantee she won't try to harm you once you take her out."

"Get me expelled if it comes to that, not you. You won't be coming. And she won't." He replied with a strange conviction, still looking away.

"What? What do you expect me to do? Sit back and watch?"

"Exactly. Keep a watch in the map and come down only if needed. It won't come to that though. I'll get her back within an hour or two. You'll have to be in inside the Gryffindor tower to help me get her back in, just in case someone is awake."

Harry looked at Ron, scrutinising the redhead. "It might endanger the Order's plans."

"It won't come to that. I give you my word."

"You have really made up your mind haven't you Ron?"

"Yes Harry I have, I will take her out... It's really important and necessary."

The discussion had come to an abrupt halt as Neville had appeared with Dean and Seamus at that instant and it was only a couple of days later that Ron brought up the topic again. Harry who had been secretly hoping that Ron would have dropped the plan groaned internally. The security inside the castle was tight with the recent events and he had no clue where his best mate intended to take her anyway.

They were sitting near the fire in the common room having finished their Transfiguration essay. The room was particularly noisy when Ron cast the Muffliato charm the boys had discovered in the Prince's potion book.

"I'm going to do it this Saturday." He said.

Harry sighed. "Where are you planning to take her?" he asked.

"Maybe just a walk around the castle and in case she expresses her desire to visit somewhere specific like the Library or her old dorm, then the Room of Requirements."

"What about the patrols?"

"Ravenclaws and Slytherins. Just have to be careful to avoid the former, Malfoy hardly pays attention to patrols and Parkinson is too busy drooling over him to notice anything."

"And the others? Aurors and teachers?"

"The routes are usually fixed. I'll keep to the areas that are patrolled by the prefects only."

"Ron, are you sure about it? I mean, I do understand that she might be feeling down but is it worth the risk? Honestly mate, I can't understand your concern, I thought you said you didn't particularly like her? And she is not even on our side. We don't even know her that well. Don't know what she is capable of."

"I do Harry, know her I mean." said the tall boy softly without looking at him, his blue eyes fixed on the fire crackling in the fireplace.

"A few months Ron." Replied Harry egging his mate on, a feeling in his gut telling him he was about to know the secret Ron had withheld for such a long time.

"Longer than that..." Ron's momentary silence was unbearable but he didn't interrupt. Whatever it was, Harry knew it would have been bad enough for Ron to have maintained his silence for so long, not to forget change him so much as well.

"I-I fancied her Harry."

He wasn't surprised at the revelation, but more so about Ron's final acceptance of it. It was difficult to fathom what was going on inside that head not just because Ron continued to look away but also because his face was so devoid of any emotion, that was strange coming from Ron.

"Last year during out patrols together... I don't really know what happened or how for that matter and I know it was absurd, but I did fall for her... bad."

"Did she know?" Harry asked softly.

"I didn't have the guts to tell her, heck I couldn't even talk but then after Dad's accident before Christmas, once we got back, she started talking, asking me why I had left earlier. Said she missed me during our patrols and I-I ... I didn't really tell her, but she knew how I felt." he struggled at the end of the sentence and stopped. He continued after a deep sigh, his voice now a monotone like describing something he alone could watch in the dying embers.

" Anyways... nothing much happened. She was all shy and delicate, you know? So different from how she was in the classes...I really thought she liked me too, she sure acted like it... I don't know why I didn't, but I should have seen it coming... Before our exams I overheard her talking to her friend. Seems she was fooling around all along." He laughed softly although there was no mirth in it, quite the opposite in fact. "It was Malfoy's idea to get her close to me to find out what we were, what you were up to. Such a dimwit I was to fall straight for it."

"Does she know... you know?"

"Yes."

"And she feels nothing about it?"

"No."

The boys remained silent. Harry absorbing the story of how his best mate was betrayed by the same girl he was supposed to be protecting now and Ron perhaps in the aftermath of finally disclosing his deepest secret to someone.

"Why are you doing it Ron?" asked Harry finally. If it made little sense earlier, now after knowing it all, he could not figure out Ron's intentions at all.

"I told you."

"Mate, you're sure she is not playing games again?"

"Not this time Harry."

He did not intent to stop Ron again. For reasons he could not really understand, it seemed crucial for Ron to do what he had planned. Maybe he wanted a closure, maybe he hoped for a second chance, Harry couldn't tell at that point. But what was important was that Ron needed it. That reason was enough for him.

"So how?" he asked once they were at the dormitory and the rest of the boys had slept.

"I expect I will be able to take her out of the secret chamber."

"Her wand?"

"She'll have to leave it behind."

"And what if she tries to run away or nick your wand? She has tried that before."

"She won't be able to nick my wand, I'll be extra careful and she won't be able to run away either."

"But how?"

"Like this." Replied the redhead and pulled out something from under his pillows. A sleek and almost translucent object fell into Harry's hands and he remembered the night during their summer holidays when Fred and George had come down to visit them.

All had seemed fairly normal as they chatted and had butterbeer together till Harry had tried leaving the kitchen to go to the loo and had crashed back into Ron the moment he had tried stepping out of the door. It had been pretty confusing as the boys had found themselves unable to move apart beyond a certain distance before being pulled in together. Only when they had noticed the twins snickering and then manage an explanation after a round of laughter did it make any sense. It was a new product. Undetectable Love Connectors they called it and laughed at the faces the younger boys had made at the cheesy name. Once placed around the wrists of two people, which could be achieved simply by holding the intended partner's wrist , the thin piece of rope like object would coil around and be completely invisible to everyone. Even the wearers couldn't feel its presence, but it successfully avoided you and your partner from getting separated. An ingenious invention the boys had agreed and the twins had given each a free sample. The only thing that could open them was a personalized key that came with each.

"She won't know and I'll leave the key here."

"When?" asked Harry finally, handing back the object to Ron.

" Saturday, at 1 at night. We'll be back in a couple of hours."

Harry looked at the map and then his watch. It was twenty minutes past one and Ron and Hermione were still walking.

Hermione couldn't believe she was finally out, or how easy it had been to fool him with her act of loneliness. He sure was dumb enough to fall for it again. All she had to do was to ensure she looked extremely forlorn and grief stricken. A simple spell on her face to pale her complexion to look sickly had worked like a charm and so had her talks about her 'lost' family and lost freedom. It was only a matter of days when she asked him if he ever saw a time when she would get out of the chambers and be allowed to walk around the beloved school just once, just to feel alive. And he had come up with the idea only days later. Sure pretended to look all rough but he really was a softy and a fool. And now here she was, under this invisibility cloak walking in the corridors. Sure she had to leave her wand behind but she wasn't planning an escape anyway, not tonight. Not till she had done this a few more times, earned his trust, not till she was a little more prepared. Then she could choose a time and place. And if she could nick this fantastic cloak, it would be such a bonus.

A part of her did seem to nag at her actions. After all she hadn't really expected those gifts he got her for her birthday, delivered not got, she corrected herself. They were from the Order members, books and chocolates and a homemade cake from his mother. Hermione couldn't help feel a little guilty before she had convinced herself that it was all an act too. Just a way to fool her into believing their lies. He hadn't really got her anything, not that she had hoped he would.

But nothing seemed to abate the physical pull she felt for him.

His close presence and that intoxicating smell that was distinctly him was burning her senses as was the heat of being so close. Her back was literally touching his front, sending shivers to the soft core between her legs and it was only her determination of finding her parents eventually that was keeping her sane. They had almost collided with the Ravenclaws before he had pressed them together at the wall, clasping his hand over her mouth as he faced away, watching the prefects walk by. She couldn't take her eyes off his face or stop her heart hammering inside her chest for that matter. But he left her as soon as the other couple was out of sight. So he didn't trust her completely, but that was okay, this was just the beginning anyway. She didn't know where they were going although she had expressed the desire to visit the library if possible. But this wasn't the way. Still she could wait and watch him guide them around the castle and make notes for later. She concentrated on the bleakly lit pathways, a smile creeping up her lips in anticipation for a time she knew was coming, her moment of freedom.

Harry looked at the map again. They were in the sixth floor now. No patrollers were in their immediate vicinity. Looking at the feebly burning fire at the grate his mind wandered out to the conversation he had had with his best mate only hours ago. Did he even know Ron?

"You're ready?" he had asked sitting together at their favourite place in the common room, the Muffliato cast again.

"I've been for days Harry."

"I hope you get whatever you hope to achieve from this mate."

"I hope so too." replied the redhead. "For myself, for us."

"I don't think I'm following."

"Do you know why you always lose at chess Harry?" he asked suddenly meeting those spectacled green eyes with his own blue ones.

"Because you are a better player?" replied Harry, not quite sure how it had any connection with what they were talking about.

"No. Because you concentrate on your moves not mine. You watch mine and defend."

"So?"

"So the crucial aspect of chess is not just to predict your opponent's moves but to plan them altogether. Many times you don't even realize that you move your pieces just like I want you to. Many times you think you are fooling me but you don't know that I always know what I am doing or what you are doing for that matter."

"Wow, no wonder I lose but what is the link?"

"The link is she is doing the same mistake. She thinks she is duping me again with the act she is putting up. But I know how fabulous an actress she is." He said bitterly. "I need to know why though. What she wants, why she wants to get out. Pass on a message to someone perhaps? And also how she intends to do it."

Harry looked at that familiar face not recognizing the person behind it at all. Where was the goofy Ron he knew? But this was Ron, the master strategist, one who had defeated McGonagall's chess pieces when he was just eleven. It was just strange and a little unnerving to see him applying it in real life.

"So you know and you have been playing along."

"Yes."

"And she won't try escaping?"

"No. Not this time. She is not prepared enough. She'll wait for a better chance."

"She thinks you trust her."

"She thinks I'll fall for her charms again. I don't know how Dumbledore plans to test her change of alliance if it ever happens but I won't trust her again, ever."

Suddenly he was glad Dumbledore had chosen Ron and not him. He sure wouldn't have guessed her so well. It was obvious that the headmaster hoped and expected her to change alliances but her upbringing had been dark and that sure had left enough marks on her. For some reason he had always found it easier to see people as either black or white. It was the grey shades that he found difficult to accept or understand. Ron seemed to understand it perfectly. It was a game of manipulations where the prey had suddenly become the predator and a deadly one at that. Hermione Granger had no clue what she had just got herself into. It was all mind games; a game of chess played with humans as pawns. Thank Merlin, it was Ron who was playing from their side.

Harry saw the map where the two footprints paced up and down in a corridor on the seventh floor and suddenly they stopped and disappeared.

A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers and all my readers :)

Don't forget that review!