Sands of Time

It was a dreary day. The rain had been falling continuously since late the night before, and Quidditch practice had been cancelled for the evening. It didn't help that the Daily Prophet this morning had reported a large attack by Voldemort on the Department of Mysteries. No one was supposed to know where the Department of Mysteries was. That Voldermort had gotten in so easily did not bode well for the rest of the wizarding world.

Everything in the castle seemed to have a grey caste to it, and nearly everyone was feeling out of sorts. Even the usually cheerful Flitwick snapped at a student in class and took away a large amount of points from Hufflepuff.

Hermione was still upset about her book. She would go to classes and study, but it seemed like she wasn't really paying attention to anything at all. The Chudley Cannons had spectacularly lost yet another match, which could have explained Ron's disquiet, but Harry suspected it was Hermione's problem that was bothering his friend.

Harry watched Ron stare at Hermione and Hermione stare off into space, and reflected that perhaps his newfound maturity wasn't worth it. He was growing embarrassed at the entire situation between Ron and Hermione. Where before he would just have been able to start a conversation with Ron as if nothing were wrong, now he knew something was wrong and didn't know how to deal with it. Harry sighed and reflected that he was probably depressed himself. He hated growing up.

The class ended. They all gathered up their books and headed for the doors. Hermione went off to Ancient Runes, while Harry and Ron had a free period. If it had been nicer out, they would have gone outside, but today they headed for the one place they knew no one would be - the library. Harry sat down disconsolately and said the first thing that came to his mind.

"We need to get Hermione's book back," he said. Hermione would stop mopping then, and Ron would go back to his usual slightly rude self. Harry thought it was remarkable that Ron hadn't said something upsetting to Hermione so far, but thought that Ron could not make it another day without doing so. Ron seemed thrilled by the idea and was immediately ready for them to take the entire school on.

Harry had to pause for a moment to think of a plan, but Ron's excitement was catching. Perhaps after they found the book, things would return to normal. Well, as normal as things got when someone was predicting his death, Voldemort was trying to kill him and his professors were acting strangely.

"We have another free period later today, right?" he asked. Ron nodded.

"Yeah, but only because Hagrid let those pogrebins loose on the grounds," said Ron. Harry grimaced as he remembered the dumpy little creatures that followed people around and caused despair. He wondered fleetingly if there were a few loose in Hogwarts today.

"Well, usually when something is confiscated it goes to Filch," he said, thinking out loud. "But this was a book, and from the way they've been treating it - a Dark Arts book." He couldn't help but remember Helga Hufflepuff's innocent diary entry and decided that he agreed wholeheartedly with Hermione about how 'dangerous' the book really was. "So, when something illegal is confiscated like that it goes to our Head of House so that they can deal with it. That's probably why Hermione went to Professor McGonagall in the first place." Ron's eyes widened.

"You mean we're going to have to sneak into McGonagall's office?" he asked incredulously. Harry shrugged.

"At least we know she'll be out of it during our free period. She teaches the third-years then. We just have to get my cloak and the map now, then wait until then," he said, hoping it would really be that easy.

They had their free period after Herbology. They hurried inside, anxious to get out of the light, yet penetrating drizzle that was descending from the grey sky. Harry and Ron broke away from the rest of the Gryffindors saying they were going to the library. This produced a strange look from Neville, but the rest of the class (not even Hermione) seemed to care where they were going.

A quick look at the map revealed that McGonagall was indeed in her classroom, leaving her office tantalizingly empty. Harry nodded to Ron, and they both crowded under the invisibility cloak. It was getting harder to fit since both of them had grown over the summer, but so long as they were careful it still covered them. Harry kept the map close to him so that he could continue to check it throughout their little raid.

"Ready?" he whispered. Ron nodded, and they began their careful progress down the corridor. The office door was locked, but a simple Alohomora took care of that. They were lucky that McGonagall didn't use any magical shields around her office, at least not during the day time.

Professor McGonagall's office was very neat, and tidy. It didn't take much imagination on Harry's part to see McGonagall sitting primly in her place behind the neatly ordered desk, but he had been in here too many times in his Hogwart's career to even need his imagination. Ron reached back and shut the door. They shed the cloak. Ron headed immediately to the bookcase spanning one side of the room.

"Do you think she'd just leave it here?" asked Ron, looking doubtfully at the huge bookcase full of faded tomes. Harry shrugged, and went to search her desk. If he didn't find anything in the drawers, he would help Ron search the bookcase.

Harry hesitantly pulled open the top most drawer, but only found spare quills and parchment. He stared in puzzlement at a small clothe ball. It was green and looked handmade. With a quick glance at the map to see that McGonagall was still occupied, he reached down and picked it up. A familiar scent wafted up. He could remember being overwhelmed by it at Mrs. Figg's house. He grinned. Who would have thought that McGonagall kept a ball of catnip in her drawer?

He quickly put it back, and opened the deeper drawer below the first one. Underneath a couple of rolls of student's essays, he found what he was looking for. Foundation: A New Look At The Founder's Four by Grameyre Studion. Harry pulled out the book triumphantly.

"Ron!" he called. His friend turned around and saw the book. A look of relief appeared on his face. It couldn't have been easy reading all those faded titles, and Ron looked like he hadn't even made it halfway through the bookcase. Checking the map once more to make sure that McGonagall wasn't standing just outside the door, they threw on the invisibility cloak and made their way outside.

Harry couldn't wait to see the look on Hermione's face when they returned her book to her and from the look of it neither could Ron.