AN: Sorry guys I was at the cabin this weekend so I wasn't able to update. Once again I am not JK Rowling.

Seven. I had never been intimidated by a number before. But the thought of Voldemort splitting his sole into seven pieces was nauseating. No wonder Slughorn hadn't wanted to let the memory go without a fight. We were sitting in Charms class trying to make vinegar into wine again. Harry was filling us in on what happened after he drank the liquid luck.

"Wow," Ron said, when Harry had finally finished telling us everything; Ron was waving his wand very vaguely in the direction of the ceiling without paying the slightest bit of attention to what he was doing. "Wow. You're actually going to go with Dumbledore… and try and destroy… wow."

"Ron, you're making it snow," I said softly, grabbing his wrist and redirecting his wand away from the ceiling from where the white flakes had been falling from.

"Oh yeah," Ron said, looking down at his shoulders in vague surprise. "Sorry… looks like we've all got horrible dandruff now…" He brushed some of the fake snow onto my shoulder. I laughed and pulled away from him. Harry snickered his lips twitching.

"Have you thought anymore about your proposal?" Harry asked Ron after a moment smiling.

"A little bit... its just that she's such a creative individual that I want to do an... off-beat proposal that screams Luna. Does that make any sense?" Ron asked his ears red.

"Actually it does." I said nodding. "It shows how much you care about her."

"Yeah mate, who knew you would be trying to come up with the perfect proposal?" Harry said shaking his head.

"Flitwick," Ron said in a warning tone. The tiny little Charms master was bobbing his way toward them, and I was the only one who had managed to turn vinegar into wine; my glass flask was full of deep crimson liquid, whereas the contents of Harry's and Ron's were still murky brown.

"Now, now, boys," Professor Flitwick squeaked reproachfully. "A little less talk, a little more action… Let me see you try…"

Together they raised their wands, concentrating with all their might, and pointed them at their flasks. Harry's vinegar turned to ice; Rons flask exploded. I gasped and ducked the shards that flew towards me. Ron flushed and slouched in his seat.

"Yes… for homework," Professor Flitwick said, reemerging from under the table and pulling shards of glass out of the top of his hat, "practice."

Harry and Ron kept practicing but it was only a half-hearted attempt. I sighed and leaned back pulling out a book Sirius had lent me about Horcruxes. It was some of the darkest magic I had ever read about where the most horrible sacrifices were made to complete them. Usually the sacrifices were virgins, firstborn children or rape. No wonder Sirius wanted me to stay away from this stuff. The other reason was because of the possibility of me getting hurt from reading the books. Sirius was afraid there were anti-muggleborn charms on some of them.

"What you reading Hermione?" Ron asked half-heartedly waving his wand.

"Trying to find out more about the Horcruxes." I muttered flipping a page. Ron paled and I frowned reading the page.

"Find out anything good?" Harry asked taking a sip of his reddish drink to see if it was wine. He spluttered and spat it out. I snickered and went back to my book.

"Not particularly. Everything in this book is extremely dark." I said frowning.

"What did Sirius say about all of it?" Ron asked flipping a strand of hair out of his eyes.

"Honestly... he loathes and deplores the idea of us hunting these things down." I sighed closing the book as the bell rang.

"Great," Harry muttered closing his eyes tossing his books in his bag.

We had one of our rare joint free periods after Charms and walked back to the common room together. Harry had a distant look on his face and Ron was muttering ideas under his breath as Luna turned the corner with Hannah, Ginny and Neville. Harry went up to Ginny and placed a gentle kiss on her lips while Ron tripped and kissed Luna on the side of her head. Luna smiled vaguely at Ron and entwined their hands.

We walked up to the portrait talking about classes and gave the password. The fat lady swung forward and I gasped at who I saw.

"Katie! You're back! Are you okay?" I asked excitedly rushing to her a large smile spreading across my face. She looked so much better than when I saw her in the hospital wing before she was transferred to St Mungos.

"I'm really well!" she said happily. "They let me out of St. Mungos on Monday, I had a couple of days at home with Mum and Dad and then came back here this morning. Leanne was just telling me about McLaggen and the last match, Harry..."

"Yeah," Harry said, "well, now you're back and Ron's fit, we'll have a decent chance of thrashing Ravenclaw, which means we could still be in the running for the Cup. Listen, Katie…" I sighed I knew exactly what he would ask. But I knew everyone was curious. "... that necklace... can you remember who gave it to you now?"

"No," Katie said, shaking her head ruefully. "Everyone's been asking me, but I haven't got a clue. The last thing I remember was walking into the ladies' in the Three Broomsticks."

"You definitely went into the bathroom, then?" I asked frowning.

"Well, I know I pushed open the door," Katie said, "so I suppose whoever Imperiused me was standing just behind it. After that, my memory's a blank until about two weeks ago in St. Mungo's. Listen, I'd better go, I wouldn't put it past McGonagall to give me lines even if it is my first day back…" She caught up her bag and books and hurried after her friends, leaving us to sit down at a window table and ponder what she had told them.

"So it must have been a girl or a woman who gave Katie the necklace," Hannah said trailing her fingers through Neville's hair. He shivered and pressed a kiss against her hand. "to be in the ladies' bathroom."

"Or someone who looked like a girl or a woman," Ginny said. "Don't forget, there was a cauldron full of Polyjuice Potion at Hogwarts. We know some of it got stolen…" She trailed off frowning.

"I think I'm going to take another swig of Felix," Harry said, "and have a go at the Room of Requirement again."

"That would be a complete waste of potion," I said flatly, putting down the copy of Spellmans Syllabary I had just taken out of her bag. "Luck can only get you so far, Harry. Luck isn't enough to get you through a powerful enchantment, though. Don't go wasting the rest of that potion! You'll need all the luck you can get if you go with Dumbledore…" I trailed off looking the others. Luna and Ginny were both pale and Hannah shuddered gripping tightly to Neville's hand.

We had told them some of what was going on. That we knew of how to kill off Voldemort for good. Of course when we told them that they wanted to help us but they had to protect the school and told them as much. It had taken them awhile to understand everything but they did.

"Couldn't we just make some more?" Ron asked ignoring the other's looks. "It'd be great to have a stock of it… Have a look in the book…"

Harry pulled his copy of Advanced Potion-Making out of his bag, and looked up Felix Felicis. "Blimey, it's seriously complicated," he said, running an eye down the list of ingredients. "And it takes six months… You've got to let it stew…"

"Typical," Neville muttered darkly. I leaned back thinking about the liquid luck. It was obvious we would have to hunt the Horcruxes down. Dumbledore would be dead soon and we would have to look for them ourselves. It would be fantastic to have a vast store of potions and other possible things to keep us safe. I jumped up a smile spreading across my face as a thought occurred to me.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked raising his eyebrow at me in question.

"Just thought of something." I said darting towards the portrait hole. The other's tried to call me back but I only had one thing on my mind: talking to Severus about needing some potions for the hunt.

AN: Please Review!