Chapter 15: Chapter 15

A/N: I am so so sorry that I took so much time to post again. I have to tell you though that 'The Daily Prophet' part, I was a nightmare. I took a day to write that part. Let me know if you like it.

Reviews are very much appreciated.

"Should I open it now?" Harry asked Hermione as he stated at the ceiling.

They both were in Harry's room; Hermione was reading a book sitting on his bed, while Harry was lying down on the bed his head on Hermione's lap. It had been three days after his birthday and he still hadn't opened Sirius's and Remus's present; the trunks of his parents. "There is no time like the present."

"Should I do it now then?"

"Harry, why are you so scared of opening their trunks?" she asked him as she bookmarked her book, kept it aside and then looked into his eyes.

"No, I am not scared." He shook his head as he tried to avert his eyes from hers.

"Harry, you really think I am going to believe that." She looked at him.

"What makes you think I am scared of opening the trunks?" he asked her.

"Harry, until now you have been dying to know about your parents, you have been pestering Sirius and Remus to tell you about them, and now that you have a chance to know them a little more better, you are not even opening their trunks. It's already been three days Harry."

"It's just that, I am scared 'Mione." He whispered.

"Scared… scared of what?" She asked now a little confused.

"What if they are different then I had imagined. What if they are not so noble or brave or happy when they were alive? What if they are nothing like I have imagined them as? Then what happens?" Harry asked softly.

"But Harry you have to find out about them, no matter how different they may be, you have got a chance to know them better no. You also have Sirius and Remus, they will tell you about them too. All you have to do is ask." She said looking in his eyes, caressing his face and gave a soft mile to him.

"Thanks 'Mione." He squeezed her hand.

"Now, go get the trunks." Hermione ordered. Harry got and opened the drawer of his side table and took out the diminished trunks. He put it on the floor.

"Engorgio." Harry said and the trunks returned to their normal size.

"Ready?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, you will stay with me, won't you?"

"Always Harry." And she held his hand. Harry nodded took a deep breath and opened the trunks. Both the trunks were old and had turned a bit rusty. They contained some clothes, books, potions, quills, old notes. His mom's trunk contained many books of different subjects. Dark Art's, Spells, Hogwarts- A History, books on fighting techniques, Potions, Transfiguration etc. He could feel Hermione itching to get her hands on the books. "May I?" she asked at last when she couldn't contain herself anymore.

"Of course 'Mione, you don't have to ask me." He smiled and touched her cheek. He immediately saw her take out the first book she put her hands on and picked it up with care. She touched the spine of the book and was in awe with it.

Harry let her be and turned to look at the trunks again. First he looked at his mother's trunk. He went through the photos of his mother's and her friends, some were of his parents together, when they were a couple and some were with Sirius, Peter and Remus when they were in Hogwarts. Looking at peter he felt bile rising up his throat, he immediately tried to divert his mind and looked through other things. He then took a look of his dad's trunk. Their few clothes, chocolates were lying on the floor of the trunk; there were a couple of books too. One in particular which caught Harry's eyes was a book whose name was 'Marauders secret'. Harry curiously opened it and saw all the pranks they had done and could be done were registered in that book. There were quite some books on spells and fighting but very less compared to his mom's trunk. As he carried on with their trunks he found their wands.

"'Mione… look." Harry showed her the wands of his mother and father he found. She took it and touched it.

"These can be useful, Harry. Keep it in a safe place." She said after she saw the wands and gave it back to him. Harry nodded and kept it in his drawer with care. Hermione by that time had already gone back to the book which she had in her hand. Harry turned towards the trunk when he heard Hermione gasp and call out for him.

"Harry." She called loudly.

"Yeah." Instantly alert and went to her.

"Harry, this book is written by your mom and Professor Snape." Excitement bubbling inside her.

"What!" Harry exclaimed.

"Yah, look here, it's written – By Lily and Severus." Hermione showed the book to Harry.

"I don't believe it." Harry said at once, after he saw the names disgust all over his face.

"Harry!" Hermione warned as he uttered a curse as he saw Snape's name written on the book.

"NO, no… maybe Sirius and Remus are just pranking me."

"Harry do you really think they will do such things to prank you?"

"I still don't believe it." He said adamantly.

"Harry." She sighed and shook her head at him. "How about we asked them ourselves?" She suggested.

"Yeah." Harry agreed nodding his head, wanting to clear up the confusion then and there.

"Later Harry." She said and pulling him down and making him sit next to her.

"Okay." He sighed as he went back to the trunks.

"This is exact reason why I didn't want to see their trunks." Hermione heard him mutter as he looked into the trunks.

It was dinner time when the topic of Harry's mom and Snape came up again. They had just finished the dinner and were all sitting in the main room, relaxing when Harry spoke up.

"So, Uumm Sirius..." Harry started.

"Yes Harry." He replied looking at him.

"Well, we were going the stuff from the trunk… tell me about Mum and Snape." He said not bothering to beat behind the bush.

Sirius halted and didn't say anything for a moment, when he did start to say he snap shut his mouth. Harry saw him doing that a couple of times after Remus spoke up, taking the matter in his hands. "Harry… Lily and Severus had a very, very unique relationship." He started calmly.

"A relationship!" Harry shouted feeling slightly disgusted.

"There is no need to shout, and no, not that kind of relationship, Harry." Remus said shaking his head.

"Yeah." Sirius agreed and wrinkled his nose at the mere thought of someone with Snape especially Lily.

"They were best friends." Remus said patently and Tonks gasped hearing that.

"They were best friends!" Hermione exclaimed.

"How is that even possible?" Harry asked looking ill.

"Well they both knew each other before Hogwarts, they both were neighbours and after Lily came to know this world; the world where the fairy tales and nightmares come alive, Severus became her guide. He told her about Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Ministry and Azkaban. Everything he knew about magic he told her."

"So they were friends before Hogwarts and then what happened afterwards?" Harry asked them both.

"They were still friends but it was difficult for them to continue their friendship." Sirius said.

"Why?"

"Harry, your mother was in Gryffindor and Severus was in Slytherin, house rivalry."

"Yeah, house rivalry and his friends and other co-students hated Gryffindor too, so that also had put their friendship under great strain." Rums continued.

"So then what happened?" Hermione asked with great interest.

"They remained friends for a couple of years, everybody thought they both were mad, others used to make fun of both of them but that didn't hurt their friendship. Then Severus started to get more interested in Dark Arts than his friendship with her. And-" Remus stopped and hesitated but Harry spoke up before he could.

"Then he called her a mud blood." He finished. Tonks and Hermione gasped together.

"How did you know?" Remus asked him surprised by his knowledge.

"I saw it in a pensive." He shrugged "Then?" he asked wanting to move on from the subject.

"Were they ever friends again?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Yes, after he stayed outside of the dormitory for a whole night and refused to move until she came and forgave him. They were friends again but it was more strained than ever."

There was a moment of perfect silence then Tonks said in a soft voice "Then why does Snape hate Harry so much?" There was no answer to that and after a while they all got up and went on their own ways and things to do.

"Stop looking at me like that."

They were walking back from the room after the training. It had been two weeks since they were officially 'together'.

"Like what?" Harry smiled innocently, his eyes twinkling happily. His gaze drifting with deliberate slowness to her mouth before looking back up then giving a glance to her body and the curves which can be seen very clearly because of the clothes stuck to her body, her hair which was starting to come out of her bun. He then looked into her eyes, his gaze unwavering and intense.

"Like that."

"Why?"

"Because you make me feel…" She struggled slightly for the right word; she stopped walking her lower lip caught between her teeth wiping out the sweat from her forehead and upper lip.

"Make you feel what?" Harry stopped with her too and stepped closer to her, his breath tickling her neck.

"Incoherent." Hermione mumbled softly she went backwards till her back hit the wall with Harry following her each movements and pressing her to the wall, her eyes drifting closed at his nearness, her breathing coming out in small puffs. Harry then kissed her pinning her to the wall. The kiss was hot, steamy and with so much intensity that they both lost themselves in it. Harry's hands were everywhere, on her face, neck, thighs, waist and so were Hermione's when—

"Wow, guys… that is enough." Tonks said from behind Harry. Hermione cheeks burned in embarrassment and hid her face in his chest.

"Sorry Tonks." Harry said as he his face in Hermione's shoulder.

"Oh! It's okay, but-" She started walking towards the kitchen, "Keep it in a limit." She called back to them both teasingly with a hint of seriousness in her voice.

As soon as they heard Tonks go they disengaged from each other. "Uumm, we should go and change." Hermione suggested still flustered.

"Yes." Harry agreed and immediately went to his room. They both met up after half an hour, showered and fresh and wet to the kitchen for breakfast. The atmosphere of the kitchen was not that they had expected it was grim, serious and heavy. No one was speaking when they both had entered. Tonks was nowhere to be seen, Remus and Sirius were crowed on the table looking at the Daily Prophet.

"What happened?" Harry immediately asked. Remus and Sirius just passed the paper to him and Hermione.

The upper half of the paper was covered with a vivid image of a destroyed Hogsmeade; there was a picture of a broken Zonko's Joke Shop and a picture of a destroyed, broken bridge in muggle London.

You Know Who – back in open

Yesterday the muggle world and our world witnessed a tragic happening. There were continuous attacks made by the Death eaters in muggle London, Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. The result was disastrous. Many killed, tortured and hurt. There hundreds of people have lost their lives and very few survivors unhurt. The death eaters mostly used the 'Avada Kedavra' and the 'Crucio'. A team of people have been send to the muggle world for damage control. What made it more disastrous was the appearing of You-Know-Who in open and killing off some wizards himself like Ollivander – the wand maker, Mr. Fortescue - Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, Madam Rosemerta—the owner of The Three Broomsticks . Their bodies were found tortured first, then killed. The scene looked like as though You-Know-Who interrogated them and when he failed to get what he wanted they were killed. More information will be given out later.

To see what Minster Fudge has to say about this attack - Continued in page 12

"This is horrible." Hermione said in a whisper.

"Where is Tonks?" Harry asked.

"Dumbledore called an emergency order meeting." Remus said.

"And he didn't call you?" she asked.

"Nope." he shrugged.

"That's odd; well did she take the mirror?"

"Yeah." Sirius said and places the mirror on the table. The mirror was blank and there was no sound coming from it.

"When did she go?" Hermione asked.

"Two minutes before you both came downstairs. She must be almost there." Remus said staring at the mirror. And as soon as he said that, voices started to come from the mirror. They all sat down keeping the mirror in the centre and Hermione quickly summoned her book to note down some notes.

Tonks apparated to 'The Grimmauld Place' and opened the door preparing herself for what to come. She knew Dumbledore had called them all because of what Voldemort and his followers had done. She went inside and immediately got immediately hugged by Molly.

"Molly." Tonks gasped at the intensity of the hug.

"Oh! Dear, I was so worried, I thought you were in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade when the attack took place and might have gotten hurt."

"I am fine Molly; I was at my place during the attack, safe." She said as she put on a fake smile for her to see. "Now when will the meeting start?"

"It's already started dear; when I saw that you were not here I thought something happened to you." Molly sobbed in relief.

"No, I was sleeping when I got the message that's why it took me so long to reach here. I better go in." Tonks said and went towards the room and opened the door. All the members of the order were present who were there for the meeting where Dumbledore showed himself.

"Tonk's you are here. Now come and sit and lets carry on I am sure everybody has lots of work stashed up in the ministry so I won't take much of your time." Dumbledore said as Tonks sat on a chair in the middle of the room.

"As I was saying, everybody has seen the paper today. The reason why we weren't informed about the attack before because Severus; our spy has not been able to meet up with me. Our other spy in the Death Eaters did inform me about it but it was already late for something to be done."

"We have another spy?" Alastor and Sirius spoke simultaneously at the other ends of the mirror shocked.

"Who's the other spy?" Harry and Tonks asked the question together.

"That Alastor, I won't be able to reveal. I am sorry but if anyone else knows about him he will be killed."

"So now what do we do?" asked Douglis, a thin built man, his hair line receding. He looked as though he had not slept for a couple of days.

"Those of who are in the ministry will help them maintain calm, peace and order once again; do damage control. Other than that there is nothing else we can do but one."

"What, we have to do something." An order member immediately said.

"Yeah, we have to recruit men and women who will help us in our fight against Voldemort. But it has to be discreet." Hestia Jones said from his seat.

"That we will do, but now is not the right time." Dumbledore said ending the discussion then and there.

"Well now that everything is covered you all can get back to work."Dumbledore said and got up and within a second he was gone. Tonks immediately left after not wanting to talk anyone else but come back home and discuss about want just happened and about the unknown and mysterious spy.