Lost

Chapter 5: Murder and fight

He was back again, he knew it immediately. The Hall in Hogwarts - he was somewhere above it - and down below was the dream - Harry Potter and that tall, dark person again, standing opposite each other. He thought he could guess who it was by now; the man who wanted him as his servant, Death Eater and source of power. But he couldn't concede.

"You refuse," said the dark person dangerously soft. "Do I have to use the Power of the Crows?"

"I refuse. I won't be a Death Eater. I won't give you the power to destroy the world."

"This are the consequences of your decision..."

Suddenly he didn't see dream the Harry Potter and the dark person anymore, but instead, he saw images. Images full of fear and guilt, full of murder and torture. Images of what was happening. A girl - tall, pretty, with a wonderful smile. Long, black hair and dark, deep eyes. He knew her name, but was too afraid to say it out loud. Because there was another, with black feathers and a red knife. Red, blood red, and then both girls disappeared in a haze of brown green and he saw the twelve-year-old Harry Potter again. But he wasn't at Hogwarts anymore, and the dark person had disappeared. He was at some unknown place. It was square and everywhere around him were people, who looked at him accusingly.

"It was him."

"It's his fault, he could have stopped it!"

"Now she's dead! Dead! She won't ever come back!"

"All his fault! Guilty! Guilty!"

"He has to see her! He has to know what he has done!"

"No!" screamed dream Harry Potter, but there was nothing he could do. The people gave way, and he couldn't move any more, just look at the pile there. That pile that had once been a human being - a laughing human being, whom he had kissed. She would never come back. Never come back.

"No! This can't be true! Please!"

***

Harry woke up with his cheeks wet with tears and with only one thought in his head.

"She can't die," he muttered softly. He wanted to shout it to Voldemort. Where was Voldemort? He jumped up and looked around wildly, but saw only darkness, and only then he realized where he was, and that it had all just been a dream. Just a dream? No, not just a dream like other dreams.

"Say it's not true," he whispered unbelievingly, when he realized what he had dreamed exactly. "Say it's not true, say it isn't so! Cho? Or somebody else? The meaning is obvious; they really did it! No, please... this can't be true!"

He didn't want to believe it. He couldn't believe that the Crows had really killed somebody. That dream had to be a warning, just a warning to show him what would happen when he refused. It was all boasting, it had to be boasting. It couldn't be true... it shouldn't be true... not because of him, not only because she had been his girlfriend. Who could think of something so horrible? Could somebody be so awful? Killing just to have him as a Death Eater?

But of course, he was talking about Voldemort here. Voldemort did those things every day.

"It was only a dream. Because I've been under so much pressure lately. What you think about a lot you dream about, and I've been thinking really hard about the Crows lately. Unbelievable that I met the first Crow only two weeks ago - it feels like they've always been in my life. But I've just thought about them too much, and I always dream about what scares me. It was just a nightmare," he said, but he knew he was talking gibberish. He tried to convince himself, but he knew it wasn't possible.

Suddenly he thought he heard something. What was it? It seemed a sort of soft sizzling, or were it words? He listened closely, forgetting his dream for a moment. Yes, there really was a sound, although it was really soft. No, now it was louder. Slowly, it became louder and louder. Yeah, it was definitely words, he just couldn't hear them very well anymore. A bit louder... just a little bit! He wanted to know what the voice said. Suddenly he realized that it was Parseltongue. But that didn't matter, and he strained closer to hear what the assumed snake was saying.

"Photo... sss... photo... sss..."

And suddenly, it was over. Over. No voice, no sound - except the breathing of the other boys and the wind outside.

What had the voice meant? Was it something - or someBODY - he could trust? Or was it just his imagination? "Photo," the voice had said... or maybe "Photos." It was difficult to understand when one was speaking Parseltongue. Well, there was just one photo which could be interesting now, and he feared that this was the message of the Crows or their helpers. Photo. The photo. It had to be somewhere. He hadn't been able to tear it into parts or destroy it after the last time he had seen it - exactly ten days ago. He had wanted to do it, but the photo was just too interesting. It was the only thing he could get information about the Crows from - even if it was just how they looked. Would he dare to look at it now? He was afraid for what he would see. Images from his dream. Maybe a pile... a human pile.

"Photo... sss... photo... sss..." The voice was back, but now louder than ever. And it became louder, above whispering... talking loudly. Now it was nearly screaming.. shouting...

"Photo... sss... photo... sss..." Harry tried to block the sound, tried to close his ears, but it was still nearly unbearable... it had to be somewhere inside his head, because the others didn't seem to hear it, and now it blocked out all his other thoughts, caused a splitting headache, and all this would stop when he just looked at the bloody photo.

"I will, I will," he thought aloud, and now the sound became just a bit softer, although it was still very loud.

"Photo... sss... photo... sss... photo... sss... photo..."

Finally he had the photo, which was still under all the other stuff in his trunk. But the sizzling didn't disappear, the word was repeated, and he realized that he would have to look at the photo to stop this. But he couldn't look at the photo, could he? He knew what had happened all the times before. How afraid he had been and how he had promised himself that he would never do this again. Why would he do it now? Just to stop the sizzling? It was nearly unbearable, but it would stop once, wouldn't it?

Hesitating between looking and not looking, he choose the choice that was between those two, which of course was of no use, because the sizzling wouldn't stop and it would still be horrible, but he just didn't know what else to do. He looked at the letter.

The words had changed.

He read the text quickly, and immediately he wished that he wouldn't have looked at anything. It was horrible.

The first murder is committed. There is blood on her knife.

The first murder is committed. Because Harry Potter did not stop it.

The first murder is committed. She willl never live again.

The first murder is committed. She is dead.

It wasn't just a dream now, there was now also this text, which told him that something horrible had happened. The Crows would never tell him that a murder was committed when it wasn't, would they? They wanted him to believe that they really would kill people when he refused to become a Death Eater. They wouldn't send him this message when it couldn't be proved - when he would always hesitate about whether it was true -, would they? He wanted to be able to hope that it was different, but he knew no other possibilities now, only accepting. Accepting... Cho. Was she dead? Probably. Or maybe it was somebody else, but he would know that it was his fault.

It would have been better if nobody had ever known him, if he had been lonely and anonymous... or if he had stayed with the Dursleys. There, nobody had loved him. There, he hadn't had any power that Voldemort would want to have. There, he wouldn't have been able to cause anything.

***

Drifted by an unknown force, Harry now wanted to see what was on the photo. The sizzling had become softer, but it hadn't disappeared and it wouldn't until he looked at the photo. But that was not the reason why he looked, it was a strange feeling, that he had to do this... for Cho... for others... for the world maybe. He had to look, he had to dare to look, because he was the cause for all this.

Slowly he turned the horrible message around so it disappeared from his field of view, and then he saw the photo again. Seven Crows, one boy, burning eyes, fear, power, there hadn't changed much. Or had there?

He looked closely at the Crows, and especially at Yenne, the Crow who had had to do with Cho.

She still smirked, but that was nothing surprising - they all did. No, he looked at the bit of red that was on her feathers. Red, syrupy stuff, that came on the snow-white clothes of the Harry Potter at the photo. Now he also had red on his clothes. Blood red. Blood on his clothes.

"What have I done?" he whispered, nearly without making any sound. Then Yenne moved, and she showed him her right hand, and he knew what that hand clutched. The knife, with the blood on it. The knife with which... Harry became as white as a sheet when he saw a flash of another image. Red. Black. White. Why?

He breathed fastly and suddenly knew that he had to talk to somebody, somebody who could cheer him up or be scared with him. And who was better than Ron? His best friend who was in this dorm and already knew about the Crows. But first he had to check whether there was anyone around.

He had to. He should never forget that anymore. Always look at the Marauder's Map first. Don't take any more risks, he had already been too thoughtless when it was about the life of the people he cared about. This felt like a stone on his heart, and because of that he had to talk to somebody

Suddenly he noticed that he still held the photo in his hands, and without looking at it he put it back in his trunk. Should he destroy the photo? Was it better to never see the messages and images again? He should think about that later, he couldn't destroy it here and now. You never knew what would happen, what spells protected the photo.

Wait, he shouldn't stray off again. He had to look at the Marauder's Map. Harry knew exactly where it was, in a separate compartment in his trunk so he could easily gain access to it when he needed it. Quickly he took the parchment, which was empty, like always.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he muttered, for maybe the hundredth time since his third year, and again he saw the lines wriggling and the dots appearing, all in their dorms or (for the teachers) bedrooms. Most of them were sleeping, only Snape was awake and was walking in his room, sometimes stopping by what might be a cauldron, he couldn't see that on the map. Oh, and another person was up: Keemi was in the library, sitting on one of the tables. What was she doing there in the middle of the night? Was she looking up things which could help her to scare him even more?

Then, he finally saw their dorm appearing, and relieved he noticed that there were no strange girls around, just him, Neville, Dean and Seamus. Wait, where the hell was Ron?!

With a pounding heart, Harry looked at the Marauder's Map again, but Ron was nowhere in their dorm. Was there something wrong? There had to be something wrong with the Marauder's Map. It wasn't possible that Ron was away. When he'd go to Ron's bed and open the curtains, he'd just see a boy with red hair, sleeping. Of course it would be like that, why would Ron be gone? He had seen a girl, a girl with black hair, a girl he would surely recognize and never call Ron. It had been Cho, not Ron.

Quickly, Harry got up and walked towards Rons bed, ready to open the curtains, but when he wanted to do that, he waited for a moment. Now, he could still doubt and tell himself that there was something wrong with the Marauder's Map. Maybe he wouldn't be able to do that in a few minutes. He would know truth then, he wouldn't be able to doubt anymore. Could he handle that? But he had to, he had to know.

"Let's go," he whispered soundless, and with one pull he opened the curtains.

The bed was empty.

This was probably the most horrible shock he had had in the past two weeks. Ron gone, after a dream about a murder and that letter, which was also about murder. Ron would never go out alone at night, not without telling his friends, that was not like him. Ron was... no, he didn't want to think about that when he could avoid it. Ron had to be alive. He should keep thinking about that, otherwise he would become crazy, because he would know that his very best friend would have died because of him.

He would find Ron somewhere on the Marauder's Map, just not where he expected him, but somewhere else in the castle. When he was dead, his body would still be here, wouldn't it? When he would have found the dead body of his friend, he would be very shocked, and they wanted him to be shocked. Yes, it was all very logical, so it was right. It had to be right.

Slowly, his eyes looked at every room and every corridor on the Marauder's Map. The people who had slept when he looked at it before, still slept. Most of them didn't know anything about this, most of them were innocent, and still they could be in danger. The teachers, the pupils, even the house-elves.

And it was their fault, they were guilty, not he. Where were they? Where were the Crows? He saw Keemi walking down a corridor until she met two other dots. Eve Lista and Mary-Jane Gyf were their names. So the Crows were together now, maybe talking about him, but he didn't care. He was looking for Ron.

But what when he couldn't find Ron anywhere?

He sought further, but hadn't found that one name yet, and while he was doing this, his thoughts raged through his head. Thoughts he couldn't stop, but he decided to not listen to them anymore. It wasn't like they had anything new to tell him. He kept looking for Ron, kept hoping, and finally his hope was fulfilled. There, walking across the Gryffindor common room, was a dot named Ronald Weasley.

He lived. He lived! His fear for what would have happened with Ron disappeared immediately. But he knew that there was something else to fear. But not now, please. He just wanted to be happy that Ron was still here, still alive. That he hadn't killed his best friend. That his best friend was still here, living, talking, walking, laughing, everything they did together.

He wanted to get up and run towards Ron, but his legs felt weak and so he just sat on his bed, staring at the map which proved what he was thinking. The dot came nearer, went up the staircases, and walked towards the door of the dorm. And now Harry was looking at that door, and he saw it opening very slowly. And there he was, with his freckles and red hair and all, and with a guarded - but happy - expression on his face

Harry didn't know what to say, he was just looking how Ron carefully closed the door behind him and walked towards his bed without making any sound. He walked slowly and it was clear that he didn't want to wake anybody. Maybe he didn't want anybody to ask questions about where he had been. Yeah, where had he been? Why had he been sneaking through Hogwarts in the middle of the night, while he knew how dangerous it could be? The Crows had been around as well.

"Harry? Why are you awake?" asked Ron suddenly. Startled, Harry said the first thing that came to his mind:

"Where have you been?"

Even in the dark, Harry could see Ron blushing after that question, and immediately he thought about the time that he had been the one blushing, when Ron had seen him after he came back from meeting Cho. He had never blushed more. Would that be an explanation for Ron's behavior? Would he risk his life for a girl? But maybe Ron thought that it wasn't so dangerous. Maybe he knew secret corridors or something.

"Was it a girl?" he asked grinning. Not thinking about the danger, just about the possibilities to tease his friend. After all, Ron had teased him and Cho numerous times.

"No," said Ron curtly, and he turned to his own bed.

It sounded convincing, just because it was so short; he himself had been talking rubbish for minutes, until Ron couldn't hide his laughing anymore. But Ron said just 'No' and nothing more. Was it really a girl? And if it wasn't, what was it then?

"Where were you, Ron?" he asked again, but Ron hung up his cloak and didn't answer.

"Ron?" Harry asked, and when Ron didn't react again, he walked over to him and took his shoulders. "Where have you been, Ron? Why won't you tell me?"

"It's none of you business. Leave me alone," he said irritably, and that angered Harry.

"You could have been dead, Ron. Do you know what I dreamt last night? A murder has been committed! I thought you were the dead one, when I noticed that you weren't in your bed. Damn it, where have you been?"

"Go to sleep, Harry. I'm not going to talk about this. It's none of your business," answered Ron, but was it Harry's imagination or did Ron look a little scared? Why had he been away in a night in which a murder was committed, a night in which the Crows were walking around?

And suddenly, he thought of an explanation, but it was an explanation that he didn't want to accept, an explanation that would ruin everything. Of course it wasn't the right one, he had to be able to trust his friends, just because Ron had a secret didn't mean that he would do something like that. Hermione had kept the Time-Turner a secret as well, in their third year. He himself had kept the Crows a secret, this year. No, he shouldn't think like that. He really shouldn't, because everything would change. Everything would be strange, when... when... Ron worked together with the Crows.

"Were you with them?" he said finally, and Ron turned as white as a sheet.

"Who do you mean?"

"Them. Yenne, Keemi, Mary-Jane, Eve, maybe more of their sort."

"Of course not! If I had been, I would be dead by now," whispered Ron.

Harry wanted to believe him - had to believe him for his own sanity - but it wasn't easy. But when Ron would answer his next question honestly, Harry would be able to believe him. 'Please, let him answer, please, so I can trust him again.'

He sent a short prayer to whoever would listen and asked finally: "You weren't with them, where were you?"

Immediately Ron hid his feelings again. He looked at Harry with dark eyes and said: "It's just none of you business, Harry. Go sleep, just like me, and don't think strange things like that."

"That's not easy when your best friend doesn't dare to be honest," said Harry, nearly soundless, while he walked back to his own bed. Ron wouldn't tell him anything, he knew that now, and so he only had his own suspections. And he couldn't think of a good explanation, except Ron being a friend of the Crows.

***

"This is starting to become a habit," muttered Harry when he woke up tiredly again, soaking with sweat because of the dreams he had had. Dreams about fear, death and betrayal.

He had to find out what was wrong. He refused to accept that his best friend was now his foe. If only he had some Veritaserum... but he didn't know if he would give it to Ron if he had it, because that would mean he would treat his best friend like a Death Eater. But what if he was, indeed, a Death Eater?

Frustrated, Harry decided that this wouldn't get him anywhere, and he opened his eyes. He saw that the other boys in his dorm were already awake. Ron was nowhere to be seen, but Neville and Dean were standing beside his bed and Seamus was sitting on his own bed.

"You're a real sleapyhead lately," grinned Dean, and he added: "We just wanted to wake you up."

Seamus smiled and imitated Hermione: "You should go to bed earlier, you might fall asleep in class, and that's really bad this year, with the N.E.W.T.'s and stuff, I mean if you fail your exams you will never get a job!"

"Like I'd care," muttered Harry while he got up and dressed.

"Where is Ron, by the way?"

"I have no idea, he was nowhere around when we woke up. Strange, normally you two are always waiting for eachother, aren't you?" asked Seamus with raised eyebrows. Harry just shrugged. He could have said that he and Ron had had a fight, but that might not have been the right explanation and he didn't want anybody to interfere. They would find out eventually, if he and Ron didn't talk anymore or something.

"Time for breakfast," said Dean cheerfully, and together they walked to the Great Hall. Ron wasn't there either. Strange.

"Has somebody seen Ron today?" asked Harry worriedly, and he saw Hermione (who was sitting about three meters away) raising an eyebrow and looking at him, penetrated and scared. He knew what she wanted to ask, but he didn't know a way to answer her without anybody thinking that he was crazy. So he just nodded at her, hopefully in a calming way.

But nobody had seen Ron, and Harry started to wonder whether he had really been wrong. Maybe Ron was taken by the Crows, maybe tonight had been nothing important. Maybe Ron had been under the influence of Imperius back then.

Another possibility was that Ron had gone to his friends the Crows of his own free will, and wouldn't come back anytime soon, because he, Harry, had found out about Ron's "secret". He didn't know which of those two possibilities was more enjoyable for him and his conscience.

***

As soon as he had finished his breakfast, Harry got up and saw Hermione doing the same. Of course she wanted to know what was happening, but it had to wait until the others couldn't hear them any more. As usual, he already took the Marauder's Map, but he didn't say the password yet.

"Harry, what..." started Hermione when they were about a hundred meters from the door of the Great Hall, but Harry put his finger on his lips and showed her the Marauder's Map, where the ink now flowed and found its way on the parchment.

Harry was of course mostly interested in the area where they were standing now, and soon he saw that a dot with the name 'Eve Lista' was coming in their direction. It would soon be with them.

"We can't talk now," he whispered, and he pointed at the moving dot. Hermione nodded understandingly, and looked at him questionably while she was pointing at the door close to him. It would probably lead to a deserted classroom. What did she mean?

"I don't want to meet her," muttered Hermione quickly. Of course, she was right, so Harry pushed Hermione into the class room and went after her. Hopefully Eve hadn't seen them, he didn't want to be mesmerized again.

"I know you're here," said a soft voice after a few seconds. He didn't know what to say, so he just stayed quiet, but Hermione said: "Go away. Please."

He suddenly realized that she had never actually talked with a Crow. Well, she had talked to Mary-Jane, but she hadn't known that Mary-Jane was a Crow at the time. She had never been with him when he was talking with any of the Crows, when they were scaring him. He hoped Eve wouldn't show them her feathers. He hoped Eve wouldn't say anything to Hermione. He just hoped that Eve would leave them alone.

He took Hermiones hand, and she looked at him with an expression that asked for help. He would do everything that was possible to protect her, but there wasn't much he could do when they were confronted with a Crow.

The creaking of the door made them both look up, and they saw the door slowly open, until the chink was big enough to let Eve pass.

"How cute," she said in a low voice, "Potter and his girlfriend holding hands."

Harry didn't breath for a moment when she said "his girlfriend" but he didn't let Hermione's hand go. He needed her support and she needed his, and he didn't care what Eve said about it.

"That you're able to think about those things. Poor, poor Cho. Killed by her own ex-boyfriend, who's nearly snogging with another girl the same day."

He felt Hermione taking her hand back, and saw how she looked at him. He had nearly forgotten the dream and Cho when he was talking with Ron. How had he been able to forget this? So it really wasn't rubbish and imagination. Now Eve said it aloud, he knew he had to face it. Ron was alive, Hermione was alive, but Cho was no more.

He wanted to cry, but he couldn't, and then Eve disappeared through the crink. She left him alone with a Hermione who didn't seem to trust him anymore. What had Eve said exactly? 'Killed by her own ex-boyfriend'. It was rubbish, he knew it with his brain, but he couldn't convince his heart. He felt guilty.

"Hermione, it's not what she says," he said with as much persuasiveness as he had left after this shocking news. She had to trust him, without her support he wouldn't be able to cope with it. He would fall apart. "Please, Hermione."

"What is it then?" she asked with tears in her eyes.

"It's horrible. The Crows, again." He looked at the Marauder's Map again, but there was nobody around, so he went on and told her the whole story. Told about the dream, the letter, about Ron, about what Eve meant. And he told her it wasn't true. That she shouldn't believe it, that Eve was just trying to shock them. Finally he had told her everything, and she took his hand again. It made him happier.

"So Cho is... dead?" she asked, and he nodded sadly.

"I'm quite sure."

"Oh Harry," she muttered softly, and she embraced him. Then he could finally let his tears flow, although he didn't know why exactly he cried. For Cho, for Ron, for Hermione, for everybody who was so unhappy, maybe for himself. For this whole world.

***

"But I still can't believe that Ron has really left us. Six years of friendship, that would mean something to him and to us, wouldn't it?"

Harry wanted to interrupt Hermione, but she said: "I know what you're going to say: 'How can we explain this otherwise?' Well, I don't know. I can't answer, but I'm sure there is an answer. We have to trust our friendship. We've been through so much together, we have a strong bond. Very strong."

"I don't know if I can trust him anymore," said Harry unhappily.

They both felt better, after crying together, and of course they were talking about Ron again. And he was hesitating again, maybe he had been too fast with his judgement. He had been shocked, this night, but of course Hermione was right as well. There was a very special friendship between him, Ron and Hermione. He had never been able to believe that something would happen which would destroy that friendship, although they had had their fights, especially Ron and Hermione. He shouldn't let the Crows make him so nervous, so jumpy, he should trust Ron more. If he only could do that. But now there were lifes on the stake, it was far more difficult.

"I'm so afraid that terrible things will happen when I trust him. What if he tells the Crows everything? What if the Crows know that I've sent Cho that letter because of Ron? What if he, for whatever reason, has turned evil? I could surely think of a few reasons. I can't believe that he might be really evil, but I keep thinking about Wormtail and my father. Will history repeat?"

"You shouldn't think like that, Harry! Ron is a loyal friend, brave, and he would do anything for you. Wormtail was just a hanger-on, Ron isn't."

"But my father trusted him. Now they're all talking like he was an outsider, a hanger-on, somebody who didn't belong there, somebody who would surely turn to Voldemort. A Slytherin who was hanging around with the Gryffindors because he wanted information for his master. But my father would never have befriended him if he really was so bad."

"Maybe your father didn't have so much insight in character," said Hermione softly.

Harry looked at the Marauder's Map again, got up and began to walk in circles. "Maybe we don't have much insight in character. What do I know of other people's thoughts? I'm just seventeen, I don't dare to say I have knowledge of life, of men."

They were both silent for a few minutes, while each of them was thinking, and then Hermione got up as well.

"We have to... no, you have to decide what we will do. To trust Ron or not. I can't make that choice for you, it seems like everything is coming down on you."

"Hasn't it always?" asked Harry sourly. "Can't you help me, Hermione? I have to decide, I have to be responsible for my own decision, but you can at least give me some advice."

She hesitated, seeming to be thinking about several things, but finally spoke.

"As so much depends on it, maybe you shouldn't tell him anything in the near future. But what if he's in danger again? Maybe they'll try to attack him after all. Then he has to know what's happening. But... No, I don't think I can give you advice, I don't know it myself."

"I don't think I should dare trust him about my feelings. Maybe later, when we know where he really was, when we know that he's trustworthy, if we'll ever know that. And about the facts, the things we find out... we'll see, okay? It depends on the situation."

"That sounds good," said Hermione, happy that they didn't have to decide about the reliability of their friend. She thought that she did at least partially understand what this did to Harry, now that he had the lifes of other people in his hands. He had to be careful, but she still believed in Ron, she didn't want to lose his friendship.

"And about Cho?" she asked carefully.

"I don't know. There's nothing I can do, just wait until I'm sure, but I want to do something. I have to do something, I don't want to sit down and wonder. I can't doubt about myself, I did nothing wrong and I can't give in to them."

"You won't give in to them, Harry. You can't become a Death Eater, it's against everything you are to hurt people."

"But I am hurting people now, aren't I?" he said softly, while he sat down again and played absent mindedly with the Marauder's Map. Hermione sat down next to him and waited until he looked at her.

"It's possible that other people have been hurt or will be hurt because they know you. But you are not the cause of that, the Crows are. They are the ones who murder, and they try to let you think it's your fault, but it's not. It's not, Harry! It's not your fault they chose you, and it's not your fault when they're doing horrible things. Just don't give in to them, and fight against them as much as possible."

He still looked at her, and saw in her eyes that she believed what she said, that she didn't think he was responsible and that she never would think so. He saw she trusted him, and he trusted her as well. He had to have somebody he could trust and she was so important to him, he wouldn't know what to do without her. And she was right.

"The truth. Keep saying that to me, Hermione, it keeps me alive. I can't do anything else, and you understand."

They kept looking at eachother, and both felt that this was a very special moment, although they didn't fully understand why. There was a binding between them, a very strong binding which was unbreakable. Or seemed to be unbreakable. How unbreakable was their friendship really? It looked like the friendship with Ron hadn't been. Would that happen again, and again, until he was alone? But when he saw that look in her eyes again, he could forget that thought. This was peculiar, and he didn't want to stop this moment, but from the corner of his eye he saw a dot moving in their direction.

"We have to go, Hermione. Keemi's coming."

***