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Chapter 9, End of Term, OWLs, and …

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – May 30

Wonderful news! Gryffindor won the quidditch cup! Both Ron and Ginny were fantastic. Ginny used the new moves Harry taught her and really embarrassed Cho. I must say I didn’t mind watching that at all. She caught the snitch in about an hour, and Gryffindor won convincingly since they were also ahead in goals. That’s right, Ron finally had a good game. It started out a bit shaky for him, but then he somehow pulled it together. I was so proud of him!

Everyone was so excited after the match. I hugged Ron and Ginny hugged Harry. That led to some unhappiness among certain Ravenclaws. Michael Corner was put out first because he lost, and second because his girlfriend was hugging another guy. And he let her know he didn’t appreciate it. Ginny of course, doesn’t back down from anything, so she let him have it right back. I think that relationship is probably over.

Cho was also upset with Ginny, both because she made her look so bad and because she was hugging the guy Cho wanted. Tough luck, sweetie, find your own guy. After all the glaring and shouting died down, Ginny shot me a guilty look, but I told her I was fine with her hugging Harry. He did help her a lot, and we were all in a celebrating mood. Some of the Gryffindors even modified that stupid Slytherin song ‘Weasley is our King’ to make the words more complimentary. They were singing it on the way back to the castle. (A few of the girls added ‘Weasley is our Queen, referring to the fact that Ginny won the match, after all.)

Of course, things are never normal with us, and today was no different. During the match, Hagrid came up behind Harry and me in the stands, and asked us to go off with him. Harry looked at him like he was crazy. Interrupt a quidditch match? Hagrid tried to explain that we needed to sneak out while everyone was watching the match so no one would know. Then I suggested that we come down to see him after the match was over, when everyone in the tower would be celebrating the championship (hopefully) or mourning the defeat. We could sneak out under the invisibility cloak like we always do when we go to see him in secret. He wasn’t happy about it, but finally gave in.

Well, as it turned out that was a good decision. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to miss seeing Ron make all those great saves, or see Ginny fly Cho into the ground. (Harry told me it was his modification of a Wronski Feint.) When everyone finally stopped hugging each other and headed back into the castle, Harry and I disappeared and headed down to Hagrid’s. I figure if anyone noticed we weren’t at the party they’d assume we were ‘celebrating privately’.

Well, we finally found out what dangerous creature Hagrid’s hiding in the forest. It’s his brother! Or, half-brother, I should say. He’s a full size giant! It was terrifying. He took us really deep into the forest, which by the way is more dangerous than ever since the centaurs are so angry with him, before we came to the place where he’s keeping him. His name is Grawp. He’s ‘small’ for a giant which is one of the reasons Hagrid thought he needed to rescue him and bring him back from his visit to the giants, but he’s still at least three times my height and about thirty times my mass. (That’s elementary physics – I had to explain it to Harry, but didn’t even bother trying with Ron.)

It gets worse. Grawp is rather violent (which is why Hagrid’s looked like he’s been beaten up all year) and doesn’t speak much English. And Hagrid wants us (Harry, Ron, and me) to take care of him. Right. And try not to get squashed in the process. I swear, if we get out of this alive I’ll never complain about one of Harry’s dangerous ideas again.

The reason Hagrid wants us to take care of Grawp is that he thinks he’s about to get fired. Unfortunately, I don’t think he’s wrong about that. Umbridge is determined to get rid of him, and it's only a matter of time. When I asked Hagrid what, exactly, was involved in taking care of Grawp, he explained that he wanted us to visit him occasionally, and talk to him. Then he woke him up to introduce us.

That didn’t go well at all. It took quite a bit of effort to just get him to look at us, then Hagrid told him our names were Harry and Hermy (I had to threaten Harry later that he was under no circumstances to ever use that name for me or let anyone else hear it) but he didn’t seem to pay much attention. He did reach down and try to pick me up, which scared me so much I nearly passed out. Harry pulled me behind a tree just in time. When I finally stopped shaking in terror later, I rewarded him rather passionately.

To top it all off, we were intercepted by the centaurs on our way out, and they threatened to kill Hagrid if he continued coming into ‘their’ woods. Hagrid stood and argued back with them until Harry and I were able to pull him away.

So, Harry, Ron, and I have to somehow sneak out into the ForbiddenForest, get by the centaurs, and talk to a giant who could crush us without even noticing it. And if he doesn’t kill us the centaurs will. Great.

Needless to say, Ron was not thrilled.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – June 1

All the professors announced that we’re going to be reviewing for OWLs all of this week. Everyone in our year is starting to panic, even Ron. Unfortunately his solution is to try to find some magical powder or elixir that will temporarily boost his brain power, instead of actually studying. And there are plenty of older students willing to sell these things, even if they are all completely useless. Harry and I have been stopping it whenever we see it. It’s ironic – even though we aren’t prefects, we have the respect of the students in our year for the things we’ve done so that we can almost act as if we were. Good thing too, because Ron and Lavender certainly aren’t doing anything. On the other hand, I suppose I can’t blame them since Umbridge took away all the prefects’ authority and gave it to her Inquisitorial Squad.

Some of the other students – especially the Ravenclaws – are forming study groups and comparing notes. Still others are obsessing about how many hours they’re studying. Ernie Macmillan is an annoying example of this. I’m glad I’ve got Harry (and Ron, too, I suppose, although I’d never admit it to him) to keep me somewhat grounded, or I’d probably be doing the same thing. Possibly even worse.

Even so, I’m sure I’m going to drive him crazy before the exams are over with my stressing out. So far he’s being good about it, constantly reassuring me that I’ll be fine, I always get 100 percent or better on all my tests, and I know the material thoroughly. It doesn’t always help though. Today I really annoyed him when he was quizzing me on Charms, because I kept grabbing the book from him to check my answers. Finally he cast a Calming Charm on me to settle me down, and told me I had them all perfect and that I should be quizzing him instead.

A lot of us are still concerned about Defense Against the Dark Arts, since the DA hasn’t met since the night Umbridge found us. Many of the members were asking if we’re going to get together to review. We figured out a solution. I’ve drawn up a schedule where a few people study together each night, so we don’t raise suspicion by gathering in a large group. McGonagall and Flitwick are letting us use the Transfiguration and Charms classrooms, so we can legitimately practice spells. After she heard about it, Professor Sprout told us we could ‘study’ in one of the greenhouses too.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – June 7

The Board of Examiners arrived this evening. I was so unnerved that I dropped my fork. I think I might have cut the blood flow to Harry’s hand off, I was squeezing it so hard. It was good to see that Umbridge was quite nervous to see them as well. I take that as an indication that she won’t have any influence over them, and that the exams will be fair.

Griselda Marchbanks, the head of the board, is positively ancient. She commented that she personally examined Dumbledore for his NEWTs! Unbelievable! She doesn’t seem the type to be intimidated by anyone. Neville confirmed this. He said she’s friends with his gran, and is a lot like her, which means she must be rather formidable.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – June 8

We started off with Charms today. I think I did OK. I ran out of time on the written portion, but Harry pointed out that I probably wrote more than anyone else taking the exam. Ron snapped at me when I started talking about it as we left the Great Hall, so I shut up. I’ve always wanted to talk about exams right afterward, but he always wants to forget them as soon as possible. It’s a good thing we’re not together. Harry’s more willing to listen to me, but he stays pretty quiet himself. He just smiles at me and gives my hand a squeeze when I start to ramble on and on.

I think that we all just have different ways of dealing with nervousness. Ron tries to change the subject, I tend to chatter, and Harry tends to clam up and withdraw into himself. It would be good for both of us, I think, if each would rub off on the other a bit. I know I certainly need to calm down. I mean, I know I’m not going to fail, but I just can’t help worrying about it.

Anyway, the afternoon practical went well. I went first, in a group with Anthony Goldstein, Greg Goyle, and Daphne Greengrass. Harry’s group included Pansy Parkinson and the Patil twins. Ron was with Dean Thomas, Lisa Turpin, and Blaise Zabini. Madame Marchbanks, my examiner, told me I did everything perfectly. Harry said he messed up a few, but thought he was OK overall. Ron, as usual, didn’t want to talk about it.

So far so good. Transfiguration is tomorrow.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – June 11

The DADA OWL was today, and everyone I’ve talked to said that thanks to Harry they thought they did fine. And they all noticed that the students who weren’t in the DA did much worse. Vindication! The best part was that Professor Tofty, Harry’s examiner, asked him to do a Patronus for extra credit, and he conjured one right there in the Great Hall. And it was right in front of Umbridge. Take that you toad! I was a little jealous at first, because I didn’t get a chance to do my Patronus for extra credit, but I quickly pushed that thought aside. Harry certainly deserves a lot more extra credit than that for teaching all of us.

The boys have tomorrow off while I take my Ancient Runes OWL. I suggested to Harry that he borrow my broom and go flying with Ron while I’m taking the exam to work off some stress, since I’ll want to go right back to studying when I’m done. I got a hug and kiss for that suggestion! But we do have to study Potions this weekend.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – June 15

Harry wasn’t thrilled by the written portion of the Potions OWL, but we all got a chuckle (even Ron) about the question on Polyjuice. After 2nd year we’re quite familiar with that one, and could all describe its effects very accurately. Ron teased me that he added a sentence warning against trying to turn into an animal like a cat. Harry managed to stop me from hexing him. The boys all did much better on the afternoon practical, particularly Harry and Neville, without Snape harassing them, and brewed the assigned potion successfully.

Tomorrow is Care of Magical Creatures, which we should be OK in, but Wednesday will be our hardest day. Astronomy in the morning, then in the afternoon I’ve got Arithmency, my toughest subject, while the boys have Divination, which is problematic for them for entirely different reasons. Then at night we have the Astronomy practical. It’s going to be a very long day.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – June 17

This is outrageous! When is someone going to do something about that evil woman? Professor Tofty even watched it happen! Umbridge and her goons attacked Hagrid this evening during our Astronomy OWL. We saw it all from the Astronomy Tower. She and 5 others snuck down to his cabin. Then all hell broke loose. Suddenly they were fighting, trying to stun him, but they couldn’t bring him down because of his giant blood. He knocked down at least two of them.

All at once Professor McGonagall came running out of the castle trying to stop them, but then they attacked her ! She was hit by 4 stunners simultaneously. For a minute I thought they’d killed her!

In the confusion Hagrid got away, but not before he’d knocked out two more of the Aurors. I just can’t believe that this could happen. What is the world coming to when representatives of the Ministry of Magic can just attack someone like that? Granted, Hagrid resisted them, but what grounds did they have to try to arrest him just because Umbridge wanted him sacked? And McGonagall – how can anyone justify their attacking her? I wonder if this government is too corrupt to be tolerated any longer. After what I’ve learned this year, I certainly don’t want to have anything to do with it, and I’m certain Harry doesn’t either.

After all of that I’m certain we couldn’t have done very well on that OWL. But I find myself unable to get too worked up about that. A lot of the Gryffindors sat up late into the night in the common room waiting to hear if Professor McGonagall would be all right. I was so distraught that Harry had to hold me the entire time. Finally Madame Pomfrey sent word that she would recover, and we eventually headed off to bed just before dawn.

It’s a good thing that History of Magic is the only OWL exam left. We’re going to be so tired I’ll be surprised if some of us don’t fall asleep during it. Ironic, I guess, since most of the students sleep during the course itself. Let’s just hope nothing else bad happens.

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – June 19

Oh my God this is horrible! That had to have been the most awful night of my life! And it must have been even worse for Harry.

I’m in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts now, and trying to put everything together. Ron is in the next bed over. Everyone else was healed relatively quickly, but Ron and I are going to be here for a while longer. When I first woke up and didn’t see Harry anywhere I completely lost it and started screaming “Where’s Harry!” Madame Pomfrey had to sedate me again but I wouldn’t let her until she assured me that Harry was all right and had been sitting by my bedside for hours. Now I’m awake again and still don’t know where he is. Neville went off to try to find him, after Ron and I gave him some possible places to look. Susan and Luna are here too, and Ginny brought my journal so I could try to write down everything that happened. She’s not too happy with us right now, though, since we left her behind. But I better start from the beginning.

It started during the History of Magic OWL Thursday afternoon. We were all tired and emotionally exhausted, and I tried to keep a close eye on Harry during the exam. I didn’t think it was too difficult, but I could see that he was struggling. We’d been going through all my notes beforehand, but neither of us could concentrate all that well. During the exam he’d stare at the paper for a while, then he’d write something down, then stare at the back of Parvati’s head for a bit before writing something else. After about a half hour of this I noticed that he seemed to be just sitting there in a daze. It was only later that I realized that he was having another vision. Suddenly he screamed and fell off his chair and onto the floor.

I leapt to my feet but didn’t know what to do, as the exam was still going on. Madame Marchbanks shouted at all of us to remain in our seats and Professor Tofty took Harry out of the room. I finished my exam as quickly as I could (it was the only exam I turned in before the end of the time limit) and hurried out of the Great Hall to see what was going on.

It took me a while to find him, but finally someone said they had seen him running toward the Hospital Wing. I caught up to him coming out of the infirmary and grabbed hold of him. We each managed to calm the other down a bit, me from being frightened about what had happened to him and him from panicking at not finding McGonagall. Madame Pomfrey had just told him that she’d been transferred to St. Mungo’s. I’d figured out by now that he’d had another vision, and understood that he’d wanted to tell McGonagall about it. As our eyes met it dawned on both of us that there was no one left in the castle that we could go to. Just then Ron caught up with us and Harry pulled us into an empty classroom.

“Voldemort’s got Sirius,” Harry blurted out.

“What!” shouted Ron.

“Was that in your vision?” Hermione asked, attempting to remain calm and settle him down.

“Yeah. In the Department of Mysteries. The place I’ve been dreaming about all year. He finally made it in and he has Sirius with him. The room was full of shelves. They were at row ninety-seven. He was torturing him.”

“Harry, calm down and think it through,” Hermione pleaded.

“Hermione! He’s got Sirius and if he’s in that room he’ll get the weapon too,” Harry insisted. “We have to figure out a way to stop him but there’s no one here to tell. And we can’t floo or owl anyone.”

“But are you sure it’s real?” Hermione persisted. “It could be just something Voldemortwants to have happen.”

“How can we risk it?” Harry argued. “Remember my dream about Mr. Weasley.”

“I know, I know,” Hermione countered. “But that was in the middle of the night. How could they be in the Ministry? Sirius’s face has been on wanted posters all over Britain for three years. And Voldemort’s face is hard to miss as well. How could they have gotten into the Ministry without anyone seeing them? It’s the middle of the afternoon – the Ministry would be full of people.”

“She’s right, mate,” Ron offered.

“But it was so real,” Harry insisted. “And it was just like Mr. Weasley. So you think I’m just imagining it?” he asked in increasing agitation.

“No, I don’t,” Hermione reassured him. “But it could be that you’re tapping into his thoughts, seeing what he’s planning. Maybe it hasn’t happened yet.”

“You think Harry’s a Seer?” asked Ron incredulously.

“How can we take that chance?” Harry argued. “We just don’t know.”

Hermione had been holding her hands to the side of her head, thinking furiously. Suddenly she looked up. “Call him on your mirror!”

Harry shot her a startled look for an instant before pulling her into a crushing hug. “You’re brilliant!” he announced. Then the three of them were out the door headed toward GryffindorTower. They tumbled through the portrait hole and raced for the stairs, Hermione lagging behind the two longer-legged boys.

“Ron, stay out here and don’t let anyone in,” Harry gasped as he dove for his trunk. A second later Hermione flew by Ron and into the room, not hesitating in the slightest from the fact that she was in the boys’ dorm.

“Sirius!” Harry all but shouted into the small enchanted mirror, desperately hoping that his face would appear and that they’d all have a good laugh at the situation. Indeed, the more he calmed down and thought about it, the more absurd the whole thing seemed. How indeed could Voldemort have captured Sirius when he never set foot outside Grimmauld Place?

“He’s not answering!” Harry said, turning to Hermione in anguish. “Now what do you think?”

“There must be someone there,” Hermione moaned. “The place is their headquarters for goodness sakes. If only we could floo call there.” Suddenly her head snapped up. “Umbridge’s office,” she declared. “We can use her floo.”

“Hermione, how are we going to do that?” he demanded.

“Same way we got into Snape’s office,” she returned grimly. “Invisibility cloak and a diversion.”

They were interrupted by the sounds of an argument outside the dorm room. Striding across the room, Harry pulled open the door and quickly waved Ron, Neville, and Ginny in.

“What’s all the excitement about?” Ginny began, as Neville tried to contain his surprise at having two girls in his bedroom.

“We need to try to contact headquarters,” Hermione replied briskly. “Will you help us?

For a plan drawn up on the fly, it really wasn’t too bad. Ron was assigned to lure Umbridge away from her office with a story about Peeves smashing up the Transfiguration classroom, Ginny and Neville were going to clear people out of that corridor with a story about a load of Garroting gas being released, and Harry was going to break into her office using the special knife he got from Sirius that had an attachment for picking locks. We figured we only needed five minutes.

Well, we managed to get in OK, and Harry was able to get through to Grimmauld Place, but the house elf Kreacher was the only one home – or so he claimed. I suspect now that he was lying, but he told Harry Sirius had ‘gone out’. When Harry tried to press him for details, he clammed up, but made several innuendoes to the effect that Sirius wouldn’t be coming back. Before we could leave, however, Umbridge burst through the door with a group of her Inquisitorial Squad and caught us. Apparently the nifflers Fred and George and Lee Jordan have been sneaking into her office prompted her to put wards on her door, which we triggered. They’d also caught Ron, Neville, and Ginny.

She was, of course, her typical nasty self, but this time she managed to be even worse. While she was ranting at us, accusing Harry of contacting Dumbledore, she decided to send for Snape to give us truth serum. I could have kicked myself, and I could see that Harry felt the same way, for forgetting that we could have contacted Snape. I honestly don’t know if he would have helped us though, considering how much he hated Sirius. At any rate, he claimed to be out of Veritaserum, although he freely offered to poison us if she wanted him to. As he was leaving, Harry shouted something about Padfoot being missing. I’m certain that he understood Harry’s reference, but he acted like he had no idea what he was saying. That didn’t help us much, because he would have acted that way regardless of whether he had caught on or not.

After he left, Umbridge somehow managed to convince herself that torturing Harry with the Cruciatus curse would be a valid option. I, of course, immediately shouted out that this was against the rules, but it didn’t sway her at all. In fact, she even let slip that it had been her who had sent the dementors after Harry last summer. I knew it was some kind of Ministry plot!

At that point Ginny started crying loudly (I suspected she was faking it, which she later confirmed) and then I joined in and screamed at Harry to tell her the truth. He and I proceeded to argue about it, and I could tell that he caught on pretty quickly that Ginny and I were only pretending. Then I mentioned a ‘secret weapon’ we were building that was finished, and told her we had been trying to contact Dumbledore to tell him it was ready. I figured Umbridge would probably believe this, since she already suspected that we were trying to contact the headmaster.

She bought it. I also managed to play on her paranoia to convince her that she needed to come alone with us to see it, since no one else could be trusted. Then I took Harry’s hand and walked with him out of the castle, and he trusted me enough to let me lead him without making it look like I was leading him. Part way there he figured out that I was taking them to the Forbidden Forest, and pretty soon he realized we were going towards where Grawp was living. But he might not have realized that I was actually hoping the centaurs would intercept us. I knew that she hated all other magical creatures, and it wouldn’t take long for her to insult them enough that they’d attack her.

Unfortunately, it worked too well. They got mad at us too, and wouldn’t let us go. But then Grawp showed up, and they forgot about us in a hurry. Unbelievably, he remembered my name and called it out, but then all hell broke loose. Harry pulled me to the ground as the arrows started to fly, then helped me run away. We got pretty bloody before it was over, which turned out to be helpful later.

“Hermione, that was bloody brilliant!” Harry exclaimed, as they neared the edge of the forest. “But what are we going to do now?”

“We need to get back to the castle and try to get our wands back, for starters,” Hermione reasoned. “And then we still have to find a way to contact someone.”

“I think we should fly to London ourselves,” Harry declared. “Even if he’s not there yet, I still think that vision meant something. He might try to break in tonight. And you have to admit it’s still possible he does have Sirius. We can borrow Ginny’s broom and with Ron’s and yours the three of us can do it. You’re good enough at flying now …”

“Harry, wait,” Hermione pleaded. “Even if he has captured Sirius, don’t you think it could be a trap? Maybe he wants you to come.”

Harry slowed down and turned to Hermione, taking her hand. “I know it’s probably a trap, Hermione. I reckon it’s yet another one of his plots to get me. But I have to go anyway. I’d do the same for you if you were captured.”

Hermione had no immediate response to that. She realized that of course he would do that – it’s just the kind of person he was. And she also realized that she’d do the same for him.

“Harry,” she finally replied. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but don’t you think you have something of a ‘saving people’ thing? I mean, it’s quite noble and all, but I think Voldemort’s taking advantage of this to lure you into the trap.”

Harry grinned at her. “Yeah, I reckon I do. But don’t you think the same could be said for you? How many times have you followed after me to help me out of one jam or other?”

Hermione flushed. In her case, it was more of a ‘saving Harry’ thing. She risked her life to save him. He risked his life to save total strangers. But she wasn’t about to quibble about that now. They still had a problem to solve. She gave his hand a squeeze of acknowledgement, and they quickened their pace back toward the castle.

“You know, if you two wanted a private place to snog, you could have found something a bit closer to the castle than this,” joked a familiar voice. In seconds, Ron, Ginny, and Neville joined them, accompanied by Susan and Luna.

The others quickly filled them in on what had happened. Luna and Susan had spotted the Inquisitorial Squad members escorting Ron to Umbridge’s office and had followed at a safe distance. When Umbridge had emerged with Harry and Hermione, they’d drawn their wands and waited, and shortly afterward the group of Slytherins came out holding the other three at wandpoint. A volley of stunning spells from two of the top duelists in the DA had made short work of the captors, and the initial surprise enabled the three Gryffindors to grab their own wands back and finish them off. Then they had come out looking for Harry and Hermione.

“We need to get to London as quickly as possible,” explained Harry as Ron returned his and Hermione’s wands. “We think there’s going to be a break-in at the Ministry and we don’t have any way to send a message.”

“We should contact my aunt, then,” Susan suggested. “If we had an owl we could send it from here in the forest without it being intercepted.” Ron and Ginny had explained the situation about Sirius and his innocence to the others on the hike out from the castle, but Harry was still uneasy about that idea.

“No offense Susan, but your aunt and all theAurors think Sirius is a Death Eater,” he pointed out. “If they went to the Ministry and found him there with Voldemort, I’m afraid it would be shoot first and ask questions later.”

“How are we going to fly there?” Ginny wanted to know. We only have three brooms between us.” Harry’s attempt to explain that only three of them were going was met with strong resistance. Neville pointed out that they had all trained hard in the DA and they all wanted to help and Susan agreed vigorously. Ginny, meanwhile was locked in a glaring contest with Ron, who insisted that she stay behind.

“We could fly on the thestrals,” Luna offered. “They’re at least as fast as a broom, and should be more comfortable besides. And thestrals can find anything, even in the dark.” Even as she finished speaking, three thestrals emerged from the trees, drawn, Harry and Hermione soon realized, by the blood on their clothing. As soon as Luna pointed them out, Harry and Neville turned in their direction.

“But how are we going to fly on something we can’t even see,” objected Ron.

“Well, three of us can see them,” Luna responded. “Three of the rest of you can ride behind us.”

Harry nervously climbed onto one of the reptilian horses, then turned to pull Hermione up behind him. “Just like on Buckbeak,” he whispered to her, trying to calm his own nerves as well as hers.”

“But I could see Buckbeak,” she squeaked, wrapping her arms tightly around him. In the meantime Luna had gracefully mounted another thestral, and Neville had managed to climb on a third. Before any of the others could move, Susan was right behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist as he blushed furiously.

“You can ride with me, Ronald,” Luna announced, patting the space behind her. Ron shot a look of panic at Harry, but he merely shrugged and nodded. His face bright red, Ron took the hand Luna offered him and swung his leg over what looked to him to be empty space right behind her bum. Initially he slid as far back from her as he could, but she made him scoot up and hold onto her waist, shooting a wink at Hermione as he reluctantly did so. Despite the deadly serious nature of their mission, Hermione couldn’t stop the smile that crept onto her face.

“Wait, what about me?” Ginny demanded, stamping her foot.

“Ginny, Mum would kill me if I let you do this,” Ron declared. That, of course, didn’t mollify her one bit.

“Ginny, you can help by trying to contact the Order,” Harry decided. “Sneak back into the castle, get your broom, and fly somewhere you can use a floo. Then floo your mum or dad and tell them what’s happening.” Ginny was still not happy, but was somewhat placated that she would at least be contributing to the effort. With one last glare, she turned and hurried back in the direction they’d come from.

“OK, let’s go,” Harry announced.

“Wait,” Hermione interrupted, and she tapped him on the head with her wand while she cast a spell. Harry felt the sensation of cold water running down his body that signaled the disillusionment charm. One by one she cast it on all the riders, finishing off with herself. In response to the looks of amazement on the faces of the rest of them before they disappeared she shrugged and said simply, “when Moody did it last summer I thought it looked useful, so I looked it up and taught it to myself this year. Now we don’t have to worry about what would happen if someone were to spot six bodies flying through the air.” In front of her she could feel Harry shaking his head in admiration and she gave him an extra big hug. Then he coaxed his thestral into the sky and they were off.

Harry couldn’t help comparing this ride to the one they had taken almost exactly two years ago. That one had also been to rescue Sirius. But the intervening two years had seen a significant change - the girl that had held tightly to him on that night had been far different from the young woman with her arms around him now, both physically and in the way they felt about each other. The physical difference was particularly evident with the way she was pressed up against his back. Despite the desperate situation they were in, Harry was still a healthy male and he found his thoughts drifting to certain parts of Hermione’s anatomy. In turn, these thoughts caused his body to respond in a potentially embarrassing way. At this point Harry was very glad he was sitting in front of her rather than behind her.

For her part, Hermione focused mostly on controlling her terror at riding something invisible, and held on to Harry for dear life. Even though she was now much more comfortable riding a broom, this was entirely different. And she immediately realized, to her dismay, that Luna was right, thestrals were even faster than brooms. She pressed her body tightly into Harry’s back and buried her head into his shoulder. Eventually though, she also had a few distracting thoughts about how good he felt.

Night fell while we were flying and after a while I pulled myself together enough to initiate a conversation. Harry and I talked about what we might find at the Ministry and how we were going to deal with the likely trap. Harry also informed me that his scar was still giving a twinge every so often. We concluded that it was Voldemort trying to keep the pressure on. Sooner than we thought possible our thestrals began to descend, and they came to a remarkably graceful landing in London. We had arrived at the Ministry of Magic.

There’s a lot more to tell, but I’m too tired right now. I’m still not certain of the details of what happened after I was injured. Madame Pomfrey came in and shooed away the others and told me to get some sleep.

I hope Harry comes back soon.

-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-