Sirius Black's Secret Love

Chapter Seven - Memories and Jealousy

Professor Figg sat down in her office and asked Neville to tell her what was troubling him.

"What you said in class today...I don't want to be a Death Eater," he choked. "You said they went after those who were loners. I don't have any close friends."

She patted his hand and said with a soothing voice, "Just because you fit one of the characteristics doesn't mean that you will automatically go bad. Neville, I know that you are a decent kid at heart. I'm not worried about your ability to stand up for yourself."

"But, I can't...I can't even stand up to Malfoy!"

"Nonsense, there are more ways to stand up for your principles than simply by getting into a street brawl. That is what my class will help you with. Ways to cope and to deal with temptation and threats. Everyone is at risk, whether they are vastly popular or painfully shy."

She poured a cup of tea and handed it to him. "I wanted to tell you that I knew your father well. He saved my life and for that I'll be eternally grateful to him."

Neville looked up at her with wide eyes.

"I've talked with other professors about your abilities and I'm concerned about you. I'm worried that your magical powers are not being channeled and focused properly. I don't think you realize just how powerful you are, or could be. The problem is that your magic is simply uncontrolled. It reminds me of the side effects of a badly cast memory charm. Tell me, what is your date of birth?"

"January 12, 1980."

"And your parents were attacked in July of 1982?"

He nodded.

"Then you would have been two and a half years old when it happened?"

"Yes."

"Were you at home at the time?" she asked.

"That's what they tell me," he said quietly.

"So you don't remember anything of that night?"

He shook his head sadly.

"Neville, there are ways to overcome memory charms. Some methods are intrusive and harmful, while others are not. Part of being able to overcome one is the knowledge that a memory charm has been placed and knowing what the memories are that are being blocked. We can use gentle methods such as hypnosis to try and unlock portions of the hidden memories and then we can work slowly towards restoring your full memory. Other methods are more painful...anger, extreme anger can cause a memory charm to be broken. It will cause a flood of memories. It's the quickest, but it is also very painful. Another method is torture, but that would destroy your mind."

Knock. Knock.

"Come in," Professor Figg called out.

Dobby the house-elf opened the door quietly. "Here's the dinners you asked for."

"Thank you very much and please set the trays on my desk."

Dobby set down the trays of food and slowly backed out of the room.

"And what is your name?" Professor Figg asked the house-elf.

"Dobby."

"I'm Professor Figg. It's good to meet you. Thank you for bringing the food, Dobby," she said with a smile.

"Professor Figg is most welcome," Dobby said as he left the room beaming.

Professor Figg placed a napkin on her lap and was about to start eating, but said, "Neville, I can try to help you recover those memories and possibly help your parents if you'd like to try."

"Help my parents?"

"Yes, there are many who think that a curse was placed on them after they were attacked. Except that no one has found a counter curse that works. If we can recover your memory of that night, you may be able to help us release them from their mental prison."

Neville sat and tried to absorb all that information. He slowly chewed on a pork chop.

*

Harry Potter sat playing wizard chess with Ron in the Gryffindor common room. He was also rehearsing in his head what he wanted to say to Neville. This didn't help his chess game and he lost several games in quick succession. Dean and Seamus were in a corner playing a rousing game of Exploding Snap with Fred and George. As Neville entered through the portrait hole, Harry looked up at him. Neville looked drained and he simply walked up to the dormitories without even attempting to say hello to anyone. Harry deliberately threw the game by putting his queen and rook in danger. Within five moves Ron had won the game.

"Your game is really off tonight," Ron said.

"Yeah, I think I'll just call it a night," Harry said. "Hey Hermione, you want to play chess with Ron?"

Hermione looked up from the book she was reading and smiled.

"Sure. It'll give me a chance to try out some of the strategies I read this summer in a book by Bobby Fischer."

"Who's Bobby Fischer?" Ron asked dumbly.

"Oh, just some Muggle chess player," she said smugly.

Harry walked up the stairway and was thinking carefully about how he wanted to approach Neville. He entered their dormitory and he saw Neville absentmindedly folding clothes deep in thought.

"Hey Neville, how are you doing?" Harry asked.

"Okay," he said dully.

"No, really. I'm worried about you. Professor Figg's lesson seemed to disturb you," Harry pressed.

"Well, yeah it disturbed me. I'm all alone. No one likes me. I'm not like you. You've got friends. You're popular. You're the famous Harry Potter. I'm just Poor Old Neville," he said gloomily.

Harry took a deep breath. Now comes the hard part, he thought. "Neville, I've never asked you this before, but why did your grandmother raise you? What happened to your parents? Were they killed like mine were?"

Neville looked at him with sorrowful eyes and shook his head. "No. They're alive. They're just...not really living," he said.

"What do you mean by that?" Harry asked innocently.

"My father used to be an Auror. About nine months after your parents died and You-Know-Who fell, some of his supporters thought that my father knew of his whereabouts. So they came to our house and tried to torture the information out of my dad. They also tortured my mum. They used the Cruciatus curse on them. It drove Mum and Dad insane. My parents have been in St. Mungo's ever since, just staring at the walls."

"I'm sorry Neville," Harry said as he sat on the foot of his bed. "Were you there when it happened?"

"That's what they tell me."

"You don't remember anything?"

"No, I don't," he said sounding a bit annoyed. "I don't even remember anything about my parents before they - before that."

"What do you remember from childhood?"

"My gran always yelling at me to stop being stupid and forgetful. She tries to get me to remember things, but I just can't. I don't know why I'm so stupid."

"You're not stupid Neville," Harry said softly and earnestly. "You saw something terrible and you probably just don't want to relive that horror. Anything that reminds you of that feeling probably shuts everything down for you."

"Harry, do you remember anything from the night your parents were killed?"

He nodded. "At first it was just a few snatches of things. A blinding green light and a high-pitched laugh. Later...when I was near Dementors, I would hear my mum and dad's voices - what they said right before they died. I also heard Voldemort."

Neville shuddered. "I don't think I'd want that."

"I know, but on one level I actually got to hear my parents. I never knew them growing up. My aunt and uncle never even talked about them or showed me any pictures of what they looked like. At least you have a family that will tell you things about your parents," Harry said.

"Yeah."

"Besides, Neville. You're not a bad wizard. You just have trouble focusing your power."

Neville looked puzzled. "But Harry, I'm not any good," he insisted.

"You transferred your ears to a cactus! I couldn't do that if I tried. Imagine if you could deliberately do that to Malfoy," Harry said.

Neville gave a crooked smile.

"Yeah and melting all those cauldrons," Harry continued. "That's because you were mad at Snape. Some of my most powerful magic pre-Hogwarts is when I was really angry. You just need to harness that energy of yours. It may all be tied to your inability to remember and cope with what you saw happen to your parents."

"That's what Professor Figg said. She offered to help me with my memory."

"Good. I think that'll help."

"Harry, please don't tell anyone about this," Neville pleaded.

"Sure, Neville. I know how tough it is to grow up without parents."

*

When Harry arrived for his second detention in Dumbledore's office he was surprised to see Professor Figg inside waiting for him.

"Hello Harry, I wanted to tell you that I will be going back to Little Whinging to take care of a problem. I wanted to offer to bring a letter to Sirius if you wanted to write one."

"Sure. Did you want me to write it now?"

"I'm not sure exactly when I'll be going. I'm still pondering of how best to deal with the situation. It's Nadine," she muttered. "It seems that she's stepped up her stalking of Sirius now that she knows he's in the house alone. It also appears that she's gotten over her fear of snakes."

Dumbledore looked at her puzzled.

"We had Harry transfigured outside one day when we knew she'd be coming by," she said sheepishly.

"Ah, that explains it," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Anyway, since I left she's been trying to get inside my house on an almost daily basis. Her excuses are getting lamer each day. And yesterday she deliberately fell on him," she said disgustedly.

Harry could visualize the buxom bottle blonde trying desperately to get her body to connect with Sirius. He shook his head quickly to get that image out of his mind.

"Can't you make some kind of Muggle repellent?" Harry asked.

"No, we need to make sure that Muggles, especially the mailman can come near the house. Otherwise it'll be too suspicious," she replied.

"How about just a Nadine repellent then?" he asked.

Professor Figg raised one eyebrow and then smiled. "Of course. I don't know why I didn't think of that. It'll take me a few days to get everything together. I'll tell Sirius a few ideas to keep her in check until next weekend. So if you want to give me a letter to him, just tuck it inside the scroll you'll be handing in next Friday. Then when I do go back, I'll only need one more ingredient - some of her hair."

"How are you going to get that?" Harry asked.

"The old-fashioned way," she said grinning. "I'm going to yank it off her head."

"Well I'm glad Harry was able to come up with a solution to your problem," Dumbledore said rubbing his hands together. "Let's start the lesson shall we?"

"I brought something to help out," Professor Figg said as she showed the catnip mouse. "We can use this as a signal. When Professor Dumbledore thinks you should change back he can wiggle the mouse. Otherwise, if you are having trouble and want us to help you resume your human form you can go and bite it."

The lesson this time progressed much faster. With both professors there making suggestions, Harry was able to manage the full change to his Animagus form for the first time. It took him almost fifteen minutes to achieve the full transformation and was only able to sustain it for a minute or so. However, that was enough to earn him high praise from both Dumbledore and Figg. Harry left his detention that day feeling very excited about his own abilities.

*

The next day Harry could hardly contain himself. They were going to start the Quidditch tryouts for the Gryffindor team. He was excited to be able to fly on his broomstick for the first time in months. It felt more like years. Being a part of the Triwizard tournament had been exciting, but Harry had deeply missed not playing Quidditch the previous year. He was a natural born flyer, so Harry wasn't too worried about his being out of practice for over a year. However, his teammates might not be so lucky. Plus they had to replace Oliver Wood as Keeper. Harry's only consolation was that all the teams were in the same boat. All of them would have lost at least one player to graduation and the returning players would all be rusty.

Harry couldn't wait until ten o'clock rolled around for then it would be time to show up at the Quidditch pitch. When he arrived broomstick in hand in the locker room he found that the rest of the team was already there.

"Am I late?" he asked.

"Nope, you're right on time," said Angelina. "We actually met here at 9:30 and told you 10:00 because we wanted to talk about you without you being here."

"Huh?"

"Well, see Harry, we talked about it and we all agreed - ," Fred began.

"--that it would be best to have a captain for our team that inspires fear in the rest of the student body. So congratulations Harry! You're our new captain," said George.

Harry's mouth hung open as he was clapped on the back by his teammates.

"But I don't know the first thing about what's involved," he stammered.

"Modest isn't he," Fred interjected. "I'm sure that after battling with a dragon and such, that helping to devise a game winning strategy should be a piece of cake."

"The first thing we need to do is to meet our potential team mates," Angelina stated. "Let's go outside!"

When they all walked outside to the Quidditch pitch they found ten students ready and waiting. Harry wasn't sure where to begin, but he thought a sign up sheet with their desired position seemed like a good starting point. As the morning wore on it was soon apparent that there were many talented players and only the one opening for Keeper. The current team members still outperformed the recruits so their positions were safe. Harry started to feel uncomfortable in having to turn down nine people.

"Harry, is there a practice team?" asked Dean.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well, on any basketball team you have enough players so that there are in effect two teams. That way the first-string team can practice against opponents and sharpen their skills. It also serves as a way to train players when there are openings either due to injury or graduation."

"That's a good idea Dean," Harry said. "I had always kind of wondered why our team didn't have any reserve players. But a full complement of reserve teammates would be helpful in grooming next year's team."

Harry then started rethinking how to choose team members. Now he would have eight positions open. The next day they'd have try outs immediately after dinner before it was too dark to see anything. Playing in darkness with Bludgers could be quite dangerous and was not something anyone wanted to do.

Dean had grown up in a family of sports fanatics. He was a fan of football, hockey, basketball and other sports. He had seen many parallels between those sports and Quidditch. He had never played Quidditch before, but had played football and basketball. He was good at goal tending and was a decent rebounder. His excitement at playing a new sport was tempered with his awkwardness at flying. He hadn't had much experience with that skill beyond the few flying lessons that Madam Hooch gave them during their first year.

When Dean started talking about how certain strategies from these Muggle sports might be adapted to Quidditch, Harry got really excited. Most of the players on the other teams had all grown up in wizarding families or were like Seamus being half Muggle, half Wizard. Therefore, they might not have ever really been exposed to other sports. For the next few days every time Harry and Dean saw each other outside of Gryffindor Tower they spoke in hushed tones about those different games and how they were played. Dean agreed to contact his parents to get Muggle books about the strategies in football, basketball and hockey. They thought it might provide a secret weapon to give their team a competitive edge.

Both Ron and Dean were competing for the position of Keeper. This led to Ron becoming a little irritated that Harry seemed to be spending much more time talking with Dean than with him. Ron seemed to think Dean was trying to ingratiate himself with Harry in order to get the prized spot. But after Dean started explaining to Ron by comparing and contrasting the different sports, he started to understand Harry's interest. Dean's experience as a goal tender proved to be very helpful in responding to the shots taken by the Chasers. However, he was a bit unsteady on his broomstick and made several errors that an experienced flyer wouldn't have. Ron on the other hand was much better at flying, but lacked some of the instinct that Dean had in knowing exactly where the Chasers were going to throw the Quaffle.

Harry felt torn between choosing his best friend for the first string team and someone he thought might prove to be more talented with a little more flying experience. After much deliberation he decided that neither one of them would be named for the first string. Instead, they'd have to continually prove themselves in practice and the one with the best goals against average would suit up for the upcoming game. Ron at first was a bit put off by this, but he came around after realizing that all three of them had to live together in the same dorm room for the next three years. It was best to come to some kind of accommodation so that no one felt resentful.

Seamus, Natalie McDonald and Ginny became the reserve Chasers, Dennis and Colin Greevey were named the reserve Beaters. Unfortunately no one showed any talent in being a Seeker. There were several who tried but they were never able to catch the Golden Snitch without causing accidents to themselves and to the other players. Rather than risk the safety of the team, Harry decided against trying to train a reserve Seeker this year.

Harry felt relieved once the tryouts were over. It was tough trying to squeeze in all the reading and homework he had for his classes in the few remaining hours after Quidditch tryouts. Once the other teams had their team trials they would have regular rotations as to who had time to practice on the Quidditch pitch. That usually meant that on weekends that all the teams could have the field for two hours each day. Unfortunately for the entire month of September, Harry was stuck in Dumbledore's office every Saturday.

*

This year on Hermione's birthday, Harry felt a little nervous about giving her his present. Perhaps it was because this time he actually put some thought into what gift to get her. That night when they returned to the Gryffindor common room after dinner, Harry reached into his pocket and took out the package he had been carrying around all day.

"Here Hermione, Happy Birthday!"

She took the long skinny box and smiled at him.

"That looks like...jewelry!" squealed Parvati.

"Oooh, what is it?" Lavender asked excitedly as they crowded around.

Hermione finished unwrapping the box and removed the lid. She carefully lifted the necklace from the cotton batting.

"Oh Harry, this is beautiful. Thank you," she said as she gave him a crushing hug. He had the letter H engraved on the outside of the gold locket. On the inside there was a place for two small pictures.

"That's beautiful," said Parvati and Lavender in unison.

"Help me put it on, Harry," said Hermione.

She lifted her hair and arched her neck begging for him to fasten the necklace. He fumbled with the clasp for a few times and finally got it to work. She then held the locket in her hand and smiled at Harry.

"Thank you so much. I love it."

"You're welcome. I really like the watch you gave me and I wanted to get you something nice, instead of the lame gifts I've gotten you in the past," he said blushing.

"Hermione, here's my gift. Happy Birthday," said Ron.

She opened his wrapped gift to find a couple boxes of chocolate frogs and Fizzing Whizbees.

"I know, it's kind of lame, but..."

"Thank you, Ron. I can never have too much chocolate."

"So, umm, what did Vicky get you?"

"Ron! His name is Viktor," she snapped at him. Then she became quiet. "He gave me a ring."

She brought out her right hand and Harry noticed for the first time that she was wearing a star sapphire ring.

"Wow, he must really like you," said Harry.

"I guess," she replied with her eyes downcast. "I've got something I have to do. I'll meet you in the library in about half an hour."

And with that she walked up to the girl's dormitory leaving Harry and Ron shaking their heads and wondering what was going on with her.

*

The next few weeks it seemed that all the older students were writing scrolls worth of parchment in secret. Whenever someone would walk near them, the papers would be turned over or covered up. People were muttering non-stop about having to turn in such assignments. Even after all the complaining amongst the students, no one had the nerve to criticize the lesson plan to Professor Figg. Perhaps it was the vivid public example of her temper to students who didn't show proper respect towards the faculty, but no one dared breathe a word of criticism to her directly. One Ravenclaw student did ask what would happen to the scrolls after she read them.

"They will be held securely in Professor Dumbledore's office after I have graded them. I shall write some cryptic comments to each student on a scroll and return that to you, but your original essays will be charmed so that only the Headmaster will be able to read them. Therefore, you needn't worry that it would ever fall into the possession of any Dark Wizards."

Harry thought that was a shrewd move by Dumbledore to have such documentation on hand to try and protect his students and also for opposition research if necessary. He sat up many nights with Ron discussing what they thought Malfoy's essays would contain. They wondered if he would actually dig deep and potentially expose some of his father's crimes or if he'd merely try to skim the surface and skate by without really telling anything.

Harry found the essays difficult to write, but it wasn't because he hadn't thought about those scenarios before. It seemed that since the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, he'd done nothing but try to take his mind off the ever-present threat to his safety and those that he cared about. He knew that the first essay, the one on temptation really didn't apply to him. There was nothing that could tempt him to join Voldemort's side. The second essay about protecting those he cared about did concern him. He was worried about the safety of Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Cho and Sirius. He wasn't sure what he would do if they were ever threatened with bodily harm. The third essay was the hardest for him to write. This one concerned having ammunition for blackmail. Harry knew that for him it all dealt with his relationship with Sirius. He was especially nervous of writing that essay in case it might fall out of his book bag before turning it in. So he wrote it hurriedly the night before so that it had less of a chance getting lost or stolen.

*

Toward the end of October the first Hogsmeade weekend was announced. Harry spoke with Professor Figg about this and she that said he could go, but that she'd have to be nearby. She'd either wear his Invisibility Cloak or use her Animagus form so as not to bring too much attention to Harry having a bodyguard. Harry didn't think too much of having a cat follow him everywhere so he promised to lend her the cloak ahead of time.

Ron and Harry had been talking quietly in the library about the shops they planned to visit in Hogsmeade when Hermione showed up later as had become her custom.

"Er, hi Hermione," Harry blinked.

"Umm, Hermione," Ron sniffed, "where do you go after dinner? You're not still working on SPEW are you?"

She angrily licked her lips at him. "Well, you should know by now it is S.P.E.W. and yes, I am still concerned regarding the welfare of house-elves."

"Why don't you just give it up?"

"Just give it up?" she said with her eyes flashing angrily. "Ron I became aware of an injustice in the Wizarding World. I can't just turn my back on it and chalk it up to tradition. This is fundamentally wrong and it needs to be changed. Margaret Mead once said, 'never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world...indeed it's the only thing that ever has.' So Ron whether or not you support me in my efforts to free an oppressed people, please do not dismiss my commitment to securing freedom and justice for them."

"Whatever," he said rolling his eyes. "So, do you want to go to Zonko's and Honeydukes with us on Saturday?"

"I can't," she sighed. "Viktor's coming and I promised I'd spend the day with him."

"Krum's coming?" Ron said angrily. "So just how serious are you two? He gives you a ring for your birthday. You go all the way to Bulgaria to see him. Tell me, just how far have you gone with him?"

"That is none of your business!" she said hotly. "And I resent what you are implying. Yes, I went to Bulgaria for a few days. With. My. Parents. Do you honestly think they'd let me do anything like what's in your filthy mind? I spent more time in Athens than I did in Bulgaria. Climbing the Acropolis meant more to me than seeing his hometown."

Madam Pince cleared her throat loudly and glared at them across the room.

"What's so important about the Acropolis?" Ron whispered.

"Greek mythology? Ever heard of it? I wanted to see the Parthenon and the Acropolis. We also went to the city of Delphi. All those places I'd read about."

"Delphi?"

"Oh honestly Ron, you've been in Divination for how many years and you don't even know about the Oracle of Delphi?" she shook her head in disgust and left the table.

"Where's she going?" Ron asked.

"I think she went to get a book," Harry answered. "You know Ron, I think you're being a bit hard on her."

"She's the one dating an international Quidditch star who went to a school known for the Dark Arts."

"I know, but she doesn't look too happy about it."

"Yeah, well she ought to break up with him then. I don't trust him Harry. Of all the girls in this school he could have asked out, he picked Hermione. Why?"

"He thought she was pretty?"

"Well, she's not ugly, but there are prettier girls in this school and ones that are closer to his age. Krum could have asked anyone. And he picked Harry Potter's best friend. Right after the first task when you were tied with him. What if he wanted to get to you through her?"

"That was then, what about now?" Harry asked.

"Well, he might be following orders," Ron suggested darkly.

Hermione returned and slapped a large book in front of Ron. "Here you are. D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. I was surprised to see they had this copy here because I've read the Muggle version. The only difference is that the illustrations are bewitched to move. Here you should check this out before Madam Pince kicks us out."

Ron started flipping through the pages and saw a picture of a man with five children in his stomach and he was trying to swallow a sixth. "This is wicked. What's it all about?"

"I'll tell you on the way back to the dormitory."

They picked up all their books and put them in their bags and Ron hurriedly checked out the book before Madam Pince decided to dock them any points for repeatedly disturbing the peace in the library.

"The picture you saw deals with the beginning of Greek Mythology. At the very beginning was Mother Earth or Gaia. She married Uranus or the heavens and the first children she had were the Titans. Six males and six females. All were immortal and beautiful. Then she gave birth to some horrible monsters that Uranus found disgusting. They were Cyclops and also creatures with fifty heads and one hundred arms."

"Ewww," Ron and Harry said together.

"Yeah, and Uranus thought there were so hideous that he banished them into the deepest pit on Earth. Tartarus. Anyway, Gaia was upset by this and she went to her youngest son Cronos. She urged him to overthrow his father. He did, but then Cronos never let his horrific siblings loose. So Gaia was hoping that Cronos would have a child someday that would in turn overthrow him."

"So that's why he was swallowing children?" Ron asked.

"Exactly. Except that his wife became awfully tired of giving birth and never having any children to show for it. So when she was pregnant with her sixth child, Rhea asked Gaia for advice. She followed it and after giving birth, she put a large rock in a swaddling blanket and handed it to Cronos. He had long since stopped looking at the newborns and he just swallowed it whole. Meanwhile the baby was spirited off to the island of Crete where he was raised in secret. When he was old enough, Zeus came back to fulfill his destiny."

"Zeus, I think I've heard of him," Ron said.

"I should hope so. He became the king of all the gods. However, he needed some allies. One of the daughters of the Titans helped him. She was Metis the goddess of prudence, Zeus's first wife. She tricked Cronos into taking an herb that caused him to be sick. He then threw up the five fully-grown siblings of Zeus. They all joined his side and helped overthrow Cronos."

"So did Zeus let the monsters go free?"

"Yes, but then he imprisoned some of the Titans who didn't join his side. Gaia was upset with Zeus over that and gave birth to more hideous creatures, which he left for future heroes like Heracles to conquer. Oh, by the way do you know who Minerva is by any chance?" she asked.

"Umm, our head of house?" Ron said weakly.

They had arrived at the portrait hole and gave the password (Aut vincere aut mori) to the Fat Lady.

"Nice try," Hermione said patronizingly. "She's named after the Roman version of the goddess Athena. That's whom I named my owl after. Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom and victory. You ought to read up on her. She was a very powerful goddess and not one to be trifled with. One time a mortal woman claimed that she was better on the loom than Athena. The goddess tried to get the girl to take back her rash statement. When she refused to back down Athena challenged her to a competition to see who possessed the greater talent. Arachne made a tapestry that technically was very good, but it ridiculed the gods and goddesses. Athena was so enraged by this sign of disrespect that she transfigured the silly girl into a spider. That way she could spin her webs forever. If I were you, I'd watch myself around Professor McGonagall. Or she might follow the lead of her namesake and you might find yourself spending your days out in the Forbidden Forest with Aragog!"

Hermione then slammed her books on a small table in the corner. She seemed to have had enough talking with Ron and wanted to finish her homework alone. Harry just looked at his friend who was flipping through the illustrated book and wondered how he could be so thick at times.

*

The first Hogsmeade weekend was a nice warm autumn day. There was an eager anticipation from the Hogwarts students as they walked down the path from the castle to the village. Standing outside the gates scanning all the faces of the students was Viktor Krum. His dour face actually brightened when he saw Hermione.

"Herm-own-ninny!" he said as he gathered her in his arms for a hug.

"Hi Viktor," she said quietly.

"You look bootiful."

"Thank you."

"Dat looks new," he said as he picked up the locket from around her neck. "Vere did you get zis?"

"Oh, umm, Harry gave it to me for my birthday," she said lightly.

"I see," Viktor said as he glared at Harry. "Come on Herm-own-ninny. I vant to take you to Gladrags."

Hermione gave a weak smile and waved goodbye to her friends.

Ron glowered at their retreating forms, "I don't know why she's still dating that guy."

"Come on, Ron. Let's not spend our whole day in Hogsmeade thinking about Hermione's love life. We should get to Honeydukes before they sell out of your favourite sweets. Otherwise we might get stuck buying cockroach clusters."

Later Ron and Harry were sitting at a table for four in the Three Broomsticks. Harry had bumped into Professor Figg as she sat down in the chair at the far corner of the table. Harry started to feel a bit sorry for her sitting there under the Invisibility Cloak and not being able to enjoy any food or drink. He couldn't figure out how to pass her anything without Ron seeing it. He didn't think it would make any difference for Ron to know that he had a personal Auror bodyguard, but he had to respect Professor Figg's wishes on this matter.

Hermione walked into the pub alone holding a large shopping bag and looking a bit distracted.

"Hermione, over here!" Harry called out to her.

She snapped out of her haze, saw them and started to walk over to the table. Harry stopped her before she tried to sit on Professor Figg's lap.

"Er no, sit here," he said blinking and patting the chair next to him. "Where's Viktor?"

She licked her lips and sat down.

"Well...he had to leave. He's got a match tonight."

"Here let me take that for you," he said as he took the large bag from her and put it under the table. "What did you get?"

"Oh, umm, Viktor bought me a dress."

"You don't seem too happy about that," Harry observed.

"No, it's nice. It's just...he was a little strange today. I've never seen him like that. He did not like that you gave me a necklace. He said it was too intimate a gift for 'just friends.'"

"But you like it?"

"Yes, of course I do!" Hermione exclaimed. "I don't know what his problem is. He knows we've been good friends for years..."

Ron sniffed, "Umm, so how come you're still going out with this guy?"

"Because he's always been very nice and sweet to me," she said defensively.

"Oh yeah, you just had with a date with your boyfriend and you look like you've had a great time."

"Can we talk about something else?" she said sounding annoyed. "Where did you guys go?"

"Zonko's is carrying some of Fred and George's fake wands. They're actually doing quite well."

"Let me get you a butterbeer. That ought to cheer you up a little," Harry said as he stood.

"Thanks, Harry," she said sounding relieved.

*

On Hallowe'en Harry woke up with a sick feeling in his stomach. He had begun to dread this day. He had come to see it as a day when bad things happened. His parents had been murdered on that day. He and Ron fought with a mountain troll in his first year. The second year marked the opening of the Chamber of Secrets and the petrification of Mrs. Norris. His third year, Sirius Black had attacked the Fat Lady while trying to enter the Gryffindor Tower. And last year his name came out of the Goblet of Fire making him a Triwizard champion. He wondered if he was worried for no good reason or whether something bad was about to happen.

Harry's stomach was in knots, so even though the Hallowe'en feast showed an abundance of incredible food, he couldn't force himself to eat anything. Instead he folded up a few of the cakes and candies into a napkin and placed them in his book bag for later.

That night as he fell asleep Harry found out that his worries were real. He had another vision and saw Voldemort talking to the Dementors at Azkaban. The wizarding prison was in the process of being overturned.

End of chapter.

End notes. Thanks to the following people for reviewing my work: actongirlie, bebe, Darkfire75, hattrickkid, Lanski, Mione Anne Potter, Noskcaj, Sonja Rose Jaime Potter, starshimmer, Werein. Many people were wondering about whether or not Neville will turn Ever So Evil. All I can say is that one of three Dark Secrets that I will reveal in this story has to do with Neville's Memory Problem. But all in due time. Stay tuned. Coming Soon: Chapter 8 - Azkaban.