No I don't own Harry... just playing with him for a while. I promise I will return him... someday! ;)

This chapter is a bonus chapter because it's Easter(and I have an hour to myself alone! as both my kids and husband are out! LOL!)

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Fifty-seven

Expected and Unexpected

Greg laid in his bed early Sunday morning, with one hand under his head, as he thought about how yesterday had gone from great, lying with his witch snuggled against him, to horrible a couple of hours later when he had lost his cool with his witch and the day had just spiraled downward.

McGonagall had told him when he went back into her office that she would accept Taylor's version of things and he could remain Head Boy. He had tried to interrupt her and tell her what happened but she had held up her hand and said she didn't want to hear it. She'd gone on to say that the students needed a Head Boy that they could look up to and that he could stay on for now. It was then that she informed him that he was going to be given detentions for being out after hours and that she had informed his parents of only that fact, cautioning him of telling anyone what had really happened.

The Headmistress then said that he was to report to Professor Shacklebolt's office at eleven to have a word with his father before going to detention. He remembered McGonagall's parting words.

"Mr. Hunter I am sure that you know as well as we do the gravity of what Miss Porter did. I can see that she has taken you into her confidences so you must also know the need for secrecy in this matter. I trust that we can count on you to keep this quiet?"

At the time he'd been so angry that they wouldn't accept his responsibility for his actions to really hear the warning and worry in the Headmistress' voice.

Then there was the floo talk with his father… Greg rubbed a hand up over his face. He'd never lied to his father before, but he had yesterday. He'd kept stoically to the story that he'd only been out after hours. He didn't think his father really believed him. Especially when his father questioned him why the Headmistress had informed him of such a misdemeanor.

Then for good measure he'd spent the rest of the day in detention cleaning the school trophy room by hand. He'd noticed Potter's name on a couple of the trophies as well as Potter's father, James.

With a groan the Hufflepuff rolled out of bed to go have a shower before going to breakfast, sorely hoping that today was better then yesterday. He needed to see Taylor and talk to her.

When he walked into the Great Hall an hour later, he looked over at the Gryffindor table but neither Taylor nor any of the others were there yet. He'd just finished his second plate of pancakes when Potter and Weasley walked in and sat down at the Gryffindor table, but the three witches weren't there.

Lingering in the Great Hall until Potter and Weasley finished, he followed them out a few seconds later and hurried to catch up. He needn't have bothered. When he reached the second floor Potter called to him as he waited by an empty classroom.

"Potter, where's Taylor?" Greg asked when he reached the Gryffindor seeker only to have the other wizard indicate to go into the classroom.

Greg nodded but slipped his wand out of his pocket as he went in. The steely glint in Potter's eyes warned him that this might not just be a place to talk privately. The first words out of the Gryffindor confirmed that this could easily come to some nasty hexes.

"You let Porter go… alone?"

"If you want to believe her story, I didn't have much of a choice!" Greg snapped as he met the Gryffindor's glare.

"I don't want her version, I want the truth! You were the last one to see her before she took off. I know you weren't in the castle or on the grounds so that means you followed her nearly to Honeydukes! I want to know why you didn't come get me or send word. You had to have known what she was going to do!" The dark haired Gryffindor ground out furiously.

"I thought I could stop her! Do you honestly think I wanted her to go meet that Death Eater? Bloody Hell Potter! Give me a break!" Then he told the two Gryffindor wizards about the witch startling him and then disarming him in the tunnel. He didn't stop there either. He told them about going with the witch to the decrepit house and then hiding under the invisibility cloak, as she had told him to, when the Death Eater had arrived. He told them everything including what had happened up in the Head Mistresses office yesterday, everything except the Death Eater's reference to Taylor's brother.

When he finally finished, he was breathing hard and furious that Potter thought he'd just leave the underage witch to go alone. To his surprise Potter nodded.

"That sounds like Taylor. Though I have another beef to pick with you Hunter! The one pertaining to a rumor I heard about you and Porter staying all night together!"

"What?" Greg yelled before he saw Potter going for his wand.

"I will not stand for those kinds of things!" Potter said coldly before flinging his first spell.

Greg quickly realized that he was out matched, that Potter was by far the better duelist as good as, if not better than, Taylor. It was all he could do to block the spells the Gryffindor was hurtling at him. Though he had to say one thing, the Gryffindors fought fair. Weasley stood silently by the door just watching.

It didn't last long, less than a minute before Greg found himself staring up into angry green eyes as his legs twitched wildly out of control.

"Let this serve as a warning Hunter! I will not let you or anyone else talk about my… best friend like that!"

"I didn't say anything like that! Why would I?" Greg yelled angrily.

"Well I overheard it from a dorm mate of yours! You'd do well to set them straight!" Potter ground out.

Suddenly the door to the classroom blew in and standing there was Taylor glaring furiously at her brother. In two strides she was in the room and with a flick of her wand the door sealed itself again.

"Potter!" was the only warning she gave before she fired her first spell.

Greg watched somewhere between angry that the witch had interfered again in something he deemed his business and amazed as he watched the two Gryffindors duel. Their wands were a blur as they cast and deflected spells almost in the same motion and not a single spell was uttered aloud.

Around the classroom the two circled as deflected spells crashed into the ceiling or the floor leaving ugly burn marks. The Hufflepuff pulled himself over against a wall, as his legs continued to spasm even after he uttered the counter curse, a testament to the power of Potter's jinx. Somehow though, as he watched he seemed to sense that the duelists were not only deflecting the spells but sending them harmlessly away from the two wizards in the room who were watching.

Greg didn't know how long the two went at it. It had to be well over five minutes and neither seemed ready to give up. Though they were both starting to sweat as they started to weave and dodge trying to get past the other's defense.

The door to the classroom blew open again and as one the two Gryffindors swung ready to attack the intruder together.

"What, may I ask, are the two of you doing?" Demanded Lupin as he surveyed the carnage in the classroom.

"Letting Potter know I don't appreciate him butting into my affairs!" Taylor snapped as she turned to glare at her brother again, the look in her eye clear, this wasn't over.

"I wasn't butting! I was simply making sure Hunter understands some things!" Harry growled.

"Oh really? That's why he was on the floor? You should try picking on someone who stands a chance! It's not nice to pick a fight if you know you are going to win Potter!" Taylor fired back.

"Really? So you thought you were going to lose did you?"

Lupin stared from one to the other before saying carefully. "I see. Well Porter, you have detention. Potter you put this room back together!" He glanced at the other two wizards in the room. "Weasley you can help Potter. Hunter I believe you have detention too! You all know dueling in the school is not allowed!" Turning, he left but his mouth twitched into a smile when his back was turned. Yes, James would have had his hands full if he'd lived to raise these two!

Taylor's detention that day was cleaning another room. This one held the potions ingredients. She had to take all the ingredients out, clean the store room itself then put everything back in its place. She had it almost finished when Moody came to get her.

"Alright Porter let's go" Moody's gravely voice said as he surveyed the progress and then with a flick of his wand finished putting everything back on its proper shelves.

Giving Moody a dirty look, she picked up the sweater she had taken off while she worked and followed the old auror. He took her up to the Defence classroom where a plate of sandwiches and some pumpkin juice waited.

That night in her research session with Shacklebolt, she faced off against her brother taking up where the two had left off earlier that day. By the end both were sporting their fair share of welts, but more importantly they worked out their anger.

With a full week of detentions, classes and research sessions Taylor had no chance to go talk with the Head Boy. He didn't come over to the Gryffindor table for breakfast Monday morning, and by Tuesday morning Taylor glared at him from her table, mad because he seemed to be mad at her.

By the time Friday night finally came and Taylor's last detention was over, she was tired not only physically but mentally as well. She was sick and tired with the thoughts chasing around in her mind. The ones that questioned if her mother was really in love with her father and if so how Snape could love her mother so much without receiving any in return. Or had her mother let the Slytherin think she loved him? Then there were her own troubles with love. The Hufflepuff hadn't spoken to her all week. True she wasn't around very much but still… was he really that upset because she had protected him? And then busted in and fought with her brother for hexing him… Taylor groaned. She couldn't seem to do anything right. Maybe that's how her mother felt with two wizards after her heart.

Shacklebolt escorted her right to the portrait of the Fat Lady before he left. She'd been helping him for detention tonight. Uttering the password she crawled through the portal and then collapsed into a chair by the fire with a sigh.

Hermione and Ron weren't back yet from patrol, so only her brother and Ginny, as well as a dozen other Gryffindors were in the common room. Taylor was almost asleep by the time the common room had emptied and Hermione and Ron were back.

"We've decided that we are going to try destroying the Horcruxes tomorrow, after we get back with the basilisk teeth." Hermione said after she put up a silencing charm.

Taylor's eyes popped open and she sat up straighter. "Tomorrow? When did you decide this?"

"It's the end of February. We need to see if the basilisk venom is going to work. If it does great but if it doesn't… we need to know one way or the other." Her brother said seriously.

Taylor nodded. "When are we going?"

"We aren't. You, Hermione and Ginny are going to the Room of Requirements and set up a place to test this out." Harry saw his sister about to protest so he cut her off. "Taylor we need a place that is warded and is not going to let anyone else get hurt if this goes awry. Ron and I can go get the teeth, that won't be a problem but we need a place to go so we aren't wandering the halls with the basilisk teeth in our arms."

Taylor nodded. Though she'd rather go with her brother she had a few ideas for the Room of Requirements already. "So Dumbledore thinks it might work?"

"He thinks it would be a good thing to start with at least. Seeing as how that's how Harry destroyed the diary." Hermione answered with a nod.

"We'll need to be careful. Remember, use your dragon hide gloves. The venom will be just as dangerous as it was when the basilisk was alive." Ginny cautioned quietly. She didn't like the idea of Harry going back down into the Chamber of Secrets.

Taylor looked around the large room carefully. A small table sat against one wall with the three Horcruxes that they had sitting on it, Helga Hufflepuff's teacup, Rowena Ravenclaw's tiara and Salazar Slytherin's locket. Three priceless artifacts from the founders of this school and they were going to try to destroy them, as well as the piece of Voldemort's soul that was hidden in each one. The painting of Dumbledore, enlarged, hung on one wall and he looked out at the three witches as they reinforced the wards of the room and asked for an assortment of things that they might need, like some blankets and pillows in case one of them was injured.

When they were through, they waited for the two Gryffindor wizards to get back, going over the best way to destroy each object.

Harry and Ron arrived with the basilisk teeth a few minutes later.

After another brief discussion, where they went over everything, Taylor stood beside the others as her brother raised one of the basilisk's teeth in his gloved hand and plunged it into Helga Hufflepuff's teacup.

A high-pitched screech filled the air, as black acidic smoke rolled up from the cup as it split it two. The tooth shattered in Harry's hand, slicing deeply into his dragon hide glove but not quite through it.

"Yes!" Ron shouted as he pumped his hand in the air.

Harry grinned over at the others, coughing a little on the smoke still rolling up from the broken teacup. "I think that one's gone!"

Hermione and Ginny rushed to him to see if he was all right, waving their wands and using the spells they knew. Taylor approached more slowly. She had her wand out also but she was inspecting the teacup to make sure that they had succeeded.

Finally Taylor nodded, a grin to match her brother's on her face as she looked up at him and the others. "It's gone, most definitely."

"Very well done. Might I suggest you leave the celebration for later though." Dumbledore's voice said from his portrait, his blue eyes twinkling above his half moon glasses.

Encouraged by their success, the Gryffindors quickly removed the broken teacup from the center of the room and putting on Ron's dragon hide glove Harry picked up another basilisk tooth. Hermione picked up the tiara and carried it to the center of the room. Then, as before, they took their places close to the wall.

"Ready?" Ron asked and Harry nodded.

With a tight grip on the basilisk's tooth, Harry swung like he had last time, to impale the diadem with the tooth.

This time though when the tooth shattered it didn't hurt the gold tiara.

"Maybe we should try another tooth," Ginny suggested as they looked at the shattered tooth pieces covering the tiara.

"I suppose it won't hurt. We brought a couple of extra just in case." Ron said as he carefully picked up another basilisk tooth and carried it over to Harry.

"Maybe if we stand the tiara on its side… the tooth might have a better chance." Hermione said thoughtfully as she cocked her head, looking at the diadem from a different angle.

Placing the gold tiara on its side, the four Gryffindors once again took their places along the wall. Harry glanced at them and then plunged the tooth down on the tiara.

The tooth shattered once again but the gold tiara did little more than wobble and fall over.

"The tooth just isn't strong enough to penetrate the metal." Hermione said shaking her head.

"We could try reinforcing it with magic." Taylor suggested as she bent down and looked at the gold tiara closely.

"It's worth a try. That will leave us with only two teeth for the locket, but if the tooth won't penetrate the soft intricate weave of the tiara it'll never penetrate the solid silver locket." Harry said with a frown.

After a quick discussion, it was decided Hermione would try transfiguring some of the tooth to reinforce it and hopefully strengthen it. Hermione was, after all, the best in transfiguration.

The painting of Dumbledore seemed to lean forward as his white painted brows drew together and his blue eyes showed a hint of worry. His hands were clasped together, his chin resting on his long index fingers, though he didn't say anything.

The others watched in silence also as the bushy haired witch worked. Her eyebrows were drawn together as she concentrated, waving her wand in intricate patterns while she muttered the incantations.

Finally she straightened up. "There, that's the best I can do. Anymore and I'll change the make up of the tooth and then the venom won't work."

Harry took the reinforced tooth in his gloved hand as the others gathered by the wall once more. The diadem was once again on its side. With a nod Harry drove the tooth down onto the tiara.

An explosion ripped through the room, flinging both wizards and witches into the air and slamming them into the walls as thick heavy smoke quickly started to fill the room.

Coughing, Taylor struggled to get up on her hands and knees. Looking around she could just make out the shapes of the others as her eyes began to water from the burning smoke.

"Harry!" she called and once again she coughed, having sucked in a huge lung full of the smoke. With a flick of her wrist Taylor had her wand in her hand. She tried vanishing the smoke and then she tried to do a bubblehead charm so she could breath easier but neither seemed to work.

Coughing again she heard another cough nearby and started crawling in that direction.

"Taylor" Ron coughed, "we need to get out of here!"

"Where's the door?" Taylor gasped.

Suddenly they could see a dim light through the smoke and started crawling towards it. They each came across a body lying on the floor and pulling it with them they finally made it out into the corridor as the thick smoke rolled out the door.

Taylor glanced down and through the water streaming from her burning eyes she could see Ginny's red hair and the brighter red of blood.

"Hermione, come on wake up!" Ron said between coughs.

"Where's Harry?" Taylor gasped looking back towards the door into the Room of Requirement.

"Accio Harry!" Ron yelled pointing his wand at the door. "Accio Harry!" He yelled again, but nothing happened. "Why ain't it working?"

"I don't know. My magic ain't either!" Taylor cried as she started for the door. Crawling as close to the floor as she could get she passed the doorway and into the black smoke filled room. She could feel Ron right on her heels.

Within seconds Taylor could barely see, as she coughed almost constantly making speech impossible. With every passing second Taylor could feel her panic rise as she felt around desperately for her brother. Her hands were soon cut on sharp unseen slivers as her searching fingers felt around blindly. The torture, as bad if not worse than any she had suffered at the hands of the Death Eaters, seemed to stretch on forever.

Suddenly she felt a hand grab her arm, as her other hand found something soft also.

"Ary" Ron's voice coughed beside her and she knew they had found her brother.

She grabbed one arm and Ron grabbed the other and the two of them slowly pulled and tugged Harry's still body out of the smoke filled room a few inches at a time. It seemed like an eternity before they made it out through the doorway and collapsed, themselves coughing and gasping in the clean air.

Taylor heard it then, voices calling and then she looked up to see a frightened pair of dark eyes peering down at her.

"Get Help!" Taylor gasped and the face blurred as it moved away and she heard feet running away. With a huge effort Taylor rolled over and her blurry vision was drawn to the door as black smoke continued to pour out of it. Shaking her head to clear it a little, she knew that no one could go in there and find the Horcruxes. Not even knowing if it would work she rolled back and forth on the floor.

"Hide them, keep them safe until we can come get them, please! Hide them, keep them safe until we can come get them, please! Hide them, keep them safe until we can come get them, please!"

The mantra repeated in her head three times and to her great relief the door grew smaller, as well as the amount of smoke that filled the corridor, until only an empty wall was left.

A/N Mwhahahahaha! (an evil grin) I'm not so sure if this is really a bonus chapter or just a way of making all my readers suffer through the Easter holiday! ;) Anyway here it is! So what did you think? I could so see Harry going after Hunter to get the full story of what happened with the Death Eater, and I could see Taylor going after Harry for doing that to Greg! About the basilisk teeth... do you think that was different enough from the seventh book? I always questioned the way the tooth went through metal... in my books teeth aren't as strong as metal. What did you think? I know I am leaving Taylor in a big mess again but hey I never said her life at Hogwarts was going to be smooth sailing! ;)

Thank you for your kind reviews, adds to Alerts and Favorites and just for reading! Thanks to barbc my great beta! Well until next time, cytpotter.