Again, late update. I apologize. I've been very busy lately and have had a lot going on, but I have not forgotten the story. I will finish this- I know how it's going to end and work out it's just a matter of getting the time to write it.

As always Thank you for everyone who's reviewed or favorited. Hermione and Parvati aren't exactly a power couple so I never really expected much when I began to write the story, but it's always been a pleasure to read a review or to see how many people have favorited or signed up for story updates. You guys are awesome :)

And as always, any mistakes let me know. I put this up in kinda rush- wanted to get it up before I started work.

Parvati apparated in the alley behind Hermione's apartment building. As Hermione lived in a muggle residence it was a good idea not to pop up in the lobby. With a flick of the wand the doors to the building opened and she started climbing the stairs to the second floor to where her ex-lover would be.

It was hard to say how Parvati was feeling at the moment. One part of her was optimistic that this would go over extremely well, although, truth be told Parvati had no idea what she was going to say when Hermione opened the door. The other part of her was slightly worried that this visit at one o'clock in the morning was not exactly the way to make up with her girlfriend. However, Parvati was dead set on seeing Hermione after Dean's little pep talk and also slightly eager to prove Ginny wrong.

She went up the last stair and walked up to the door. She swallowed. Her mouth went a bit dry and her heart beat a bit faster, but before she could rationalize a way out of it, she knocked on the door. She stood on the hearth impatiently waiting, her foot tapping rythmatically. After a few minutes she knocked again a little longer and more forcefully. The door however, remained as closed as ever, as if laughing at her.

She knocked on the door louder. "Hermione it's me. Open up. . . please," she added as an afterthought. Still silence.

Parvati scowled and pounding on the door. "C'mon Hermione please. Look, I'm sorry! Okay? Just let me in- let's talk about this!"

Parvati couldn't even hear any sounds coming from the other side of the door. She grew even angrier. Her temper seemed to be something of a fuse lately, ever since leaving Hermione she did seem a bit more hot-headed than usual.

"Fine," Parvati snarled. "You asked for it." Ignoring the fact that she was probably disturbing every single one of the tenants on the floor, ignoring the fact that probably every one of those tenants was a muggle, and ignoring the the fact that it was one in the morning and eventually someone would come to throw her out she pulled out her wand and did a swift flick at the door handle and a sound like a small explosion burst from the tip of her wand. It was a bit smokier than she anticipated, and she coughed as she swatted it away with her hand to see the damage she had inflicted on the door. Once it cleared away though, she was disappointed and angered to see that the door suffered no damage at all. Not even a single scratch.

Parvati let out a frustrated cry. "You stupid, stupid smart witch!" Parvati cursed as she kicked the door with her foot. "Just let me in damni-"

She stopped as she saw a man out of the corner of her eye that looked like he might just be a few years older than her, gawking at her from the top of the staircase.

Parvati blushed and hastily stowed her wand out of sight, hoping he hadn't been ogling at that too much and hoping he had missed the explosion and had just been watching her tantrum instead.

"You- you're her girlfriend right?" the man stammered knocking himself out of his wordless staring.

"I . . ." she stopped not knowing how much she should divulge. She certainly did not want to seem like the crazy ex-girlfriend type, although her whole behavior towards the door did seem to point at that direction. "I am her girlfriend," she decided to tell him. She was hastily trying to think of why a good, loving girlfriend would be pounding on her lover's door in the middle of the night, but she was spared because the next thing that came out of his mouth was far from an accusation.

"She might not be home yet," he hedged slowly like he really wasn't sure if he should be telling her this. "Sometimes she gets back when I do. . . or after me. She's had a lot of late nights lately at her office."

"Oh. . . right of course," Parvati said trying to play it off smooth, although she felt like a complete idiot.

"Right, well," he walked up to his door (to the left of Hermione's) and started putting the key through his lock. "You should probably stop kicking though. There's this old guy at the end of the hall. . . you don't want to get on his bad side."

"Yeah of course," she said and stepped away from the door and started towards the stairs. "Well thanks," she continued a little to awkwardly. "Goodnight."

"See ya," he said and went in his apartment and closed the door behind him.

She walked quickly down the steps and out the door of the building. Although Parvati thought it was an absurd time of night to still be at the office, she could not deny that Hermione was always a bit addicted to her work and that excuse for being out at one in the morning on a Friday night made more sense than her at a club. It would at least be worth a checkout. Besides Hermione was sure to know about Parvati's insistence anyway the next time she saw her neighbor, it seemed almost half-hearted not to go and see if she was still at work when she was pointed in that direction.

She made her way in the alley she had apparated in before and concentrated on getting herself to the Ministry. With a small crack she was transported to the an alley across the street to the entrance of the Ministry of Magic and was surprised with what she saw.

x x x

The place was crawling with aurors. There were at least ten by the phone-booth visitor's entrance and more walking by the street as if guarding the building. Parvati felt her stomach drop- whatever was going on it, it was not good news. She hesitantly started making her way across the street, trying to pick out the nicest looking auror to inquire what was going on, but they all looked grim. Deciding that she was just going to have to pick one to talk to she stopped one of the auror's patrolling the street. He wore a long trench coat and had short dirty blond hair covered by a crisp businessman's hat. He looked like a handsome muggle salesman except when he turned to face Parvati his cheekbone hit the light from the street lamps and a long gash was exposed disfiguring his face. It made him look like the kind of auror who's had such experience in a scrape that you would not want to cross him in a dark alley. Appropriately that was probably why they had him guarding the ministry when something was obviously happening on the inside.

"Yes?" he asked after Parvati stopped him.

Parvati tried to not look at the scar, but hesitated as her mind went blank. "I was wondering- I mean I was asking. . . umm so what's up with Ministry?"

He raised on eyebrow at her. Parvati smiled at him weakly, but he was not amused. "That's official auror business."

"But you see," Parvati hedged. "I need to go in."

"No one is going in tonight-"

"But. . . I-I have a friend in there."

"We've sent some people in to check it out. If there was anyone in there we would have them out already-"

"What's going on?" Parvati blurted out.

The auror gave her a look that told her he was done playing twenty questions. "This is confidential information and I can no long entertain your questions. I have a job to do and I would rather not have to forcefully remove you from the street."

Parvati opened her mouth to protest about to argue that he did not have the right to remove her from the street when he arched his eyebrow in such an authoritative way that suggested he would gladly hand her a port-key to some obscure part of the country to get rid of her. She closed her mouth and made her way back across the street feeling the auror's eyes on her back as she left.

She continued walking the down the street unsure of what to do. She could not very well go back to her apartment now- she was too worried about what was going on at the ministry where Hermione was supposedly (and probably) was. However, she was at a loss of any way of finding out what exactly the problem was. She was lost in thought barely caring where she was going when a tall, lanky man dressed in muggle street clothing walked swiftly out of a narrow alley and into the sidewalk right into Parvati.

"Oomph."

Parvati fell down onto the sidewalk, but the other man managed to stay on his feet. "Woah, are you o-"

Parvati recognized the voice immediately and cursed. This was not an auror in training who would want to help her. She looked up and sighed, the hand that was probably extended a few seconds ago to help her up was now a clenched fist turning white in anger which contrasted nicely with the red of his hair and face.

"What are you doing here?" Ron spat as Parvati helped herself to her feet and brushed off her clothes.

"I could ask you the same thing," she responded trying to keep her tone somewhat civil. Ron could prove to be an asset after all.

"This is auror business-"

"What? I can't walk around a public street?" Parvati shot back before he could finish.

He looked like he was going to say no, when a another wizard appeared behind him. "Who're you talking to Ron- oh-" he asked before recognizing Parvati.

"Harry!" Parvati exclaimed happy that she finally found an auror she could possibly work with.

"So what's-" Harry started but was cut off by Parvati.

"Why are there a bunch of auror's at the ministry?"

Harry looked at her with surprise partly because she cut him off and partly because she was demanding answers like she had the right to know them. "I can't tell you, it's official auror-"

"It's none of your business," Ron said finishing Harry's explanation for him. "You're not an auror, you can read whatever our head of department releases in the prophet when he does like everyone else."

"You're not even an auror," Parvati countered in a snarky voice before she could help herself.

Ron opened his mouth to retaliate, but his time Harry cut him off. "We're not auror's yet," he told Parvati agreeing with her, "But the department let us be here tonight so we're here tonight and we really aren't supposed to be talking to anyone about this-"

"You're asking me to leave?"

"Respectfully, yes."

The two stared each other in the eye as if sizing the other one up. They had come along way from the yule ball in fourth year. Harry was undeniably much more confident and less awkward, and Harry could not deny that Parvati had far outgrown being a silly teenage girl.

"Hermione's in there," Parvati told him with confidence. She did not know why she said it with such conviction. Obviously she had now way of knowing for sure besides her muggle neighbor's suspicions, but even as she said it- it felt right.

"What?" Harry asked sounding surprised but not unbelieving. Ron, however, picked up on the cynicism.

"How would you know?" he sneered. "You're not together anymore."

"And how would you know she's not?" Parvati retorted. "I doubt she's talked to you since that day and you only know what you read about her in the magazines. It's not like she talks to you."

Ron's ears turned an ugly color letting Parvati know she had hit the head on the nail. She smirked.

"Really Parvati," Harry asked seriously. "Is she in there?"

The expression on Harry's face wiped the smirk off her face and she felt her face drain with fear. "Harry," she said softly, her voice slightly shaking, "what's in there?"

He hesitated before he continued in a low voice, looking around first to make sure no other auror's were near. "A few weeks ago we lost account of some guards from. . . Azkaban."

"Dementors on the loose. . ." Parvati muttered remembering what Ginny had said earlier. "How many?"

This time Ron spoke. "At least fifty or more."

"And what they're running around trying to get to ministry?" Parvati shivered as if expecting one to pop up next to her.

"In the ministry," Harry said looking uneasy. "There was a massive break-in in the ministry after hours. . . we're trying to contain them now in the ministry before we can take care of them. We don't know how many of them there are."

Ron looked pale and hung his head, Parvati looked faint. "But Hermione-"

"You're sure she's in there?" Harry said cutting her off.

"I talked to her neighbor. He said she's been getting back from work later and later, not until midnight or after. . ."

Harry shook his head as if trying to think. "The dementors broke in around ten, if she was there then. . . she probably hasn't gotten out."

"But auror's have gone in there, they haven't found anyone," Ron said as if trying to salvage some hope.

Harry shook his head again. "We don't know what floors they've checked or what they've found. Besides if Hermione felt them coming she's probably been moving around. You don't want to be cornered by them." The memory of third year came to his mind and he could see himself and Hermione cornered by the lake with a hundred dementors surrounding them. Hermione was not very good with the patronus then, but she was older now and would fair much better. Harry tried to wave off the fact that she was, however, alone this time.

"We have to get her," Parvati said and Harry looked at Ron who nodded.

"'Right mate. . . let's get her," Ron said still looking slightly pale.

Harry and Ron waited which would have been the perfect part for Hermione's voice to chime in with reason. To tell them to let the professionals take care of it and that they would be hurt otherwise, that they shouldn't go bursting into the ministry all willy-nilly like they had fifth year because that had been an utter disaster, but the voice of reason never came and was replaced by a new voice that sounded eager, worried, yet determined and reckless.

"So, do you know a way in?" Parvati asked.

x x x

Harry was not as full of conviction as he usually was. This was Hermione's fault. Something about tonight was too awfully reminiscent of that night in fifth year, and Hermione's reasonable doubt about Sirius being the ministry had turned into Harry's reasonable doubt about Hermione being in the ministry. Of course the circumstances were different- there was no Voldemort trying to lure him out but there was plenty of his supporters that still hated him to the core to pull a stunt like this. However, even if he did not go in, he knew Ron would and the determined look from Parvati's face told him she would go in too. He sighed as he knew he would never forgive himself if Hermione was really in there and he had done nothing to get her out. Resigning himself to help and put his new job on the line, he conjured up a blindfold out of thin air and proceeded to ask something he knew Parvati would not at all be agreeable to.

"There's a few other ways into the ministry, but it's not public knowledge. If you're going to go in, you're going to have to wear this-" he started to explain, but was cut off abruptly by Ron.

"We're not talking her with us," he said as if it were already decided.

"Excuse me Ron, but I believe I was the one that made you aware of where Hermione was. If anyone is going it should be me-" Parvati replied heated.

"You can't even do a patronus," he sneered. "You're a liability in there."

"I can do a patronus!"

"With a dementor around?"

Parvati glared at him, but Harry stopped her before she could retaliate.

"We could use a person on the outside," he reasoned.

"Really?" she asked skeptically. "And how the bloody hell am I suppose to communicate with you?"

Harry fell silent. He couldn't think of any way to do that in the short time frame they were working with. "Fine," he sighed, "but we're going to stick together and get each others backs. We're not going to get separated in there. But, really, Parvati you're going to have to wear the blindfold. If we get caught and you know the secret pathway in the ministry it's even more on my head."

Parvati nodded. "Okay, but how are we even going to get in? It must be guarded by aurors."

Harry pulled a shimmering, silvery cloak out of his pocket to answer her question. She had seen one only once before as her great uncle had inherited one. All she knew was that true invisibility cloaks were extremely rare and valuable.

Harry saw her oggling and smiled. "Family heirloom," he explained. "It's going to be a bit hard with the three of us, but we'll manage." Ron scowled, obviously not liking the idea of bringing Parvati along, but bit his tongue finding no use in arguing with Harry.

A bit hard was an understatement. The three of them were crouched down uncomfortably as to keep their feet from showing, and were squished closely against each other. Add in the fact that one of their members was blinded and needed guidance with every step, and Harry was holding in a sneeze as they made there way past the auror guarding the passage, and Ron had kept accidentally stepping on Parvati's foot as they walked, it was a wonder how they did not get caught.

When Harry pulled the cloak off of them and took the blindfold of Parvati, she sighed in relief and took in the sight of the ministry at night. It was dark and omniscient. The water from fountain of the fountain of magical brethren, reflected eerily against the statues. The goblin looked particularly leering as they passed making Parvati shiver.

There was definitely a chill in the air, no doubt from the unwanted guests in the ministry. "Let's check her office first," Harry said quietly pocketing the invisibility cloak. "And stay close. I'm not to keen on getting caught today, if we see an auror we all need to get under the cloak fast."

They walked swiftly and quietly through the ministry and took a lift up to Hermione's floor. The chill in the air remained, but they never passed a single dementor as they finally came to the door of Hermione's department. There was definitely something wrong with the whole picture as they opened the door to the department and saw rows of nice clean desks with the exception of one that was overturned and had papers flooding the floorspace around it. The three of them felt something drop in the pit of their stomach. It was obvious as they got closer that Hermione was and had been in some sort of scruffle, it was obvious that the dementors had found the only person in the ministry and was chasing her around feeding off of her happiness, and it was obvious by the familiar looking wand on the floor dropped with the surrounding papers that she was in deep, deep trouble.

Harry carefully picked up the wand and recognized it instantly as his friend's. Parvati let out a whimper and Ron looked pale. Harry tried to keep calm, Hermione was always clever. She wouldn't get herself trapped in a corner. She would hide herself someplace confusing where there would always be room to run and she would be able to evade them until morning when she would think more people would come into the ministry.

"If you needed a place to hide in the ministry," Harry said slowly, "where even if you seemed trapped there would always be another door to turn to, where would you go?"

Ron groaned, half-amazed by Hermione's cleverness and half-exasperated by deja vu. "We're going to the Department of Mysteries, aren't we?"