Harry Potter and His New Standards

Chapter 16 - Spreading Rumor, Commencing Relationships, and Scolding Predictions *

Power lasts ten years; influence not more than a hundred.

"G-gone?" Lupin said, looking (and now sounding) youthful and naïve once more. One of his eyebrows had disappeared into his somewhat untidy brown hair, and his eyes were wide with disbelief.

"Gone," Dumbledore finalized, stepping further into the room. Hermione glanced around the office, her eyes traveling from Harry, who had turned around in his chair, to Lupin, who was leaning on his elbows which were placed on his desk, and then to the backs of Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall who were both standing in front of her.

"I - er - I'll go to the hospital wing and talk with Malfoy and Ron, shall I?" Hermione said suggestively in a softened key. Dumbledore turned to look at her and smiled very weakly.

"Yes, thank you, Miss Granger," he said. Hermione nodded, turned on her heel, and walked out of Lupin's small office, shutting the door behind her. She took a deep breath and started off towards the infirmary.

*()%()*

A few minutes later, Hermione was standing in front of Ron and Draco, who were sitting on either side of Holly's bed, gazing up at her. "He's gone."

"Who?" Ron said, "Harry?" Hermione shook her head.

"No," she said, "You-Know-Who!" Hermione only called Voldemort by 'You-Know-Who' for Ron's sake, because she, like Harry, didn't know about Voldemort until she started at Hogwarts several years before. Ron's jaw dropped and Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Gone... where?" Ron questioned blankly.

"Swing dancing, Weasley," Draco said impatiently. "He's gone, you great gangling git." Ron turned his head quickly and glared at him, somewhat unnecessarily. It was a dry and hardly degrading comment. But, considering it was from Malfoy - it deserved a nasty stare. Draco looked straight back, cool and collected as ever. He, Malfoy, crossed his arms in front of him and threw his head back a little to get a stray hair out of his eyes.

Hermione only just noticed how his light skin and pale, shiny hair stood out in great contrast against his black robes and dark eyelashes, which could have easily be pointed out at a distance. Hermione normally had a keen eye for observation, but concerning the slimiest Slytherin student - observation was rarely relevant. And at this, Hermione thought, Does he ever dress in Muggle clothing? And four 'G words' in one sentence... he deserves superior honors. 'Surprised he didn't add 'Gryffindor' to that.

"How far did you look for him?" Ron asked, turning to face Hermione more. Hermione loved how he looked when he was confused, and the way his eyes lit up when he was trying to show he knew what he was talking about. But oh how she hated how his hair hung down nearly past his eyebrows and down his neck in the back.... As soon as she got him to do it, it would be cut.

"Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore, and I split up and walked in different directions then came back after around five minutes... there was no footprints to follow. The imprints in the snow basically much made it look like he stood up, took a look around, and flew away," Hermione explained. She rubbed the side of her nose in a weary method.

Ron furrowed his brow and wondered aloud, "But... how could there be no tracks to follow?" Draco made an impatient noise of disbelief and shot Ron a look of superiority.

"Did your family purchase you on sale during Dunce Special Week at Milton's Etcetera?" he sneered. Draco laughed and added brightly, "Because I'm sure if my aunt was aware that they had Ignoramus in a Box available, I'd have a philistine cousin! Aunt Genevieve always loves a good bargain."

"Shut it, Malfoy." Hermione yawned, "I'm not about to tolerate more of your... defecation." Ron gave her an admiring smile and she returned it. "What Malfoy was trying to say," she continued, "was that You-Know-Who probably just used an Indentation Masking charm and ran like mad."

Ron nodded as though taking it all in, and asked, "Did Dumbledore send anyone out in the forest to search for him?" Hermione looked pensive.

"I think he did... he sent something into the air with his wand and it went whizzing away, then he said it was taken care of. I would guess he sent what's left of the centaurs to look around, but I could be wrong," she said. Hermione? Wrong? Who would have thought?!

Draco sighed and glanced up at Hermione. Then he drawled, "You don't know half of what's in that forest, do you Granger?"

"Do you?" she rejoined.

"I just asked you," raising an eyebrow in defense.

"Well now I'm asking you."

"I think it's safe saying that I know more of it than you do," he said, accenting the same word conjunctions as Hermione had before hand, purposely.

"Ha! Guff."

"Okay!" Ron exclaimed, feeling it was his turn to break in. "No need to fight over whose knowledge is more... infinite, alright" Draco and Hermione stopped talking and both, ironically, looked a little shifty. "Because, clearly... Hermione wins that one."

"Hey!" Draco began defending himself loudly and extensively with a lot of cursing and detail... it was rather amusing until Madam Pomfrey came out of his office and shut them all up (Hermione and Ron were cracking up, much to the dislike of Malfoy), with concern for Holly. Hermione didn't quite understand it - as in most cases people wanted the unconscious to awake.

Hermione, Draco, and Ron sat in silence for a while, all endowed with reason. Where was Voldemort now? Would he be found? And how in the heck did he recover from the Stunning spell? Hermione was thinking that perhaps Malfoy didn't do the Stunning spell correctly (he certainly had the potential to do it right)... perhaps didn't enunciate the correct parts of the incantation just so Voldemort would awake and run away. But she was not about to accuse him, as she didn't know whether they would need Draco's assistance with something later on. She sat down next to Ron at the foot of the bed and he put his hand over hers. She sighed in an approaching mental defeat - Hermione hated when she didn't know things - as the strange mysteries piled up. Ron let her rest her head on his upper arm (she was far too short to reach his shoulder).

Draco, who had stood up and started roaming around the infirmary at a very slow pace, spotted them. "Awww," he sneered with a wide grin, "should I turn my head so you two can kiss?"

"Go away, Malfoy," Ron said quietly. Draco raised an eyebrow, which he must have taken pride in being able to do.

"Sorry, Weasley... Professor's orders to stay," he said, pretending to pull his cloak open and show them some sort of badge on the inside of the fabric. Ron made a noise and intertwined his fingers with Hermione's.

*()%()*

"I sent the colony to search for him, and they shall owl me with the outcome," Dumbledore finished.

Harry raised his eyebrows. The colony? he thought, Colony of what? He was about to ask this question when Professor McGonagall said something.

"Miss Granger told me that Mr. Malfoy accompanied them on their little adventure to reverse the Transposing Spell. She explained that after he reversed it he Stunned... Him," she said. Dumbledore nodded. Lupin hadn't been of much assistance thus far, and a little more lost for words. Harry figured, no matter how composed Lupin tended to be - this information parade was certainly stacking itself up inside his head in the limit of an hour. That's how Harry felt, anyway.

Professor McGonagall continued to speak, but now only to Dumbledore. She talked in a low and hurried tone, as though to exclude Harry and Lupin from the conversation. Harry has the distinct impression that she only wanted Harry not to hear it... as chances were what she was saying was pertaining to the Malfoy family. Chances were that she didn't want to induce Harry with any more reason to hate Draco than he already had. After she finished speaking, Dumbledore shook his head and muttered something to her. Harry didn't at all enjoy not hearing this conversation (just how Hermione hated not knowing, Harry despised not hearing).

Dumbledore and McGonagall stopped talking, with McGonagall nodding a little. They stopped facing each other, and recommenced in standing directed towards Lupin and Harry. "Harry," said Dumbledore kindly, "could you retrieve Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley?"

Harry nodded, "Yes, Professor," he said quietly. He got up from his seat and made his way to the door. Harry was just about to exit when Dumbledore spoke to him again.

"You may take your time, and explain the situation if Miss Granger hasn't already done so," he continued, "Professor McGonagall and I need to speak with Professor Lupin. To better phrase that... no shortcuts." Harry, who had turned back to him, returned the small smile that Dumbledore was giving him. He turned again, pushed open the door, and began walking down the corridor.

*()%()*

Harry walked at a pace that had to be the exact and negative opposite of 'swift'. He, in fact, hadn't walked this slowly since when he had been dreading his time in the Astronomy Tower with Cho. This time he was thinking about something else completely, still on a bad key - but with a little more wonder and mystery.

Dumbledore had explained, more to Lupin than to Harry for some reason, of how he, Professor McGonagall, and Hermione had all traveled into the forest - with Hermione leading the way. She had led them, rather directly, to where Voldemort had been. There were still imprints in the snow where the 'crew' had been walking, where Holly's body had been sitting while she was chained to the tree (the shackles were gone), and the spot where Voldemort had been lying. They had all gone separate ways, in search of him, but found no trace. Visibly, there had been an Indentation Masking charm put to use. But, why Voldemort hadn't taken the time to get rid of his bodily imprint or any of the rest in the snow (he was powerful, and could easily wipe out all the nearby tracks within a time span of two minutes) was anybody's guess. He could have effortlessly made Hermione look like a lunatic, leading the professors to a place she claimed Voldemort was, and there ended up being not even a colophon of previous life in the place. But, the Heir of Slytherin was cunning. He had probably planned every bit out in advance. He certainly had planned how to get Holly to obey him, even with the slight defect in possibly not figuring that Hogwarts held a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher with enough brains to do such a thorough curse-check. Then Harry took the short time to wonder, What if there were still jinxes of all sorts on her?

And then there was the question about Malfoy's Stunning spell. It was Harry's guess, from the few words he had heard of the conversation Dumbledore and McGonagall held, that they were discussing the Malfoy family history - how they were involved in the Dark Arts. They must have suspected him. In fact, they probably wanted to question him at a later time than Ron, Hermione, and himself so he wasn't put to the test of surviving an awkward interview in front of three Gryffindor students. It didn't help Draco's chances at sounding innocent that had shown he knew about Dark Magic by reversing the Transposing Spell on Holly before Stunning Voldemort. Trying to stun Voldemort, anyway, Harry corrected himself. Was the Dark Lord at the point, now, that his body could cure itself of certain hexes? Perhaps it could resist them completely - but if he hadn't been Stunned at all and awoke in his own body only minutes after Harry and Company had departed, he would have come after them. Right? Otherwise - Draco had somehow slipped up and the spell was faulty. If that was the case - was it purposely or not?

To Harry (and probably a handful of other people who knew what was going on) the questions were multiplying rapidly, and the answers were receding. Each theory was believable, and if one was found true... he was sure there would be more questions springing up out of that. In addition, it was still nagging him what the "colony" Dumbledore had mentioned was... and even how Holly's injuries had vanished some time before they arrived in the infirmary. And why in the name of Merlin was Malfoy being so... semi-tolerable? With that, why had he come along in the first place? He could have turned back...

With the various beginnings to an interesting whodunit reeling in Harry's mind, he found himself at the infirmary doors. He pushed them open and walked inside. Immediately he spotted Ron and Hermione, sitting at the foot of Holly's bed. Hermione's head was tipped on Ron's arm, her eyes shut in oncoming exhaustion, and Ron - who had been looking around the room lazily - had his eyes on Harry. Malfoy was walking around the room in a leisurely fashion, looking at the various things up on shelves around the walls with extremely mild interest, the empty beds, and then watching a nurse in a painting above the door to Madam Pomfrey's office clean out bedpans with a sour expression.

"Hey, Harry," said Ron. Harry looked away from the painting Draco was gazing at, and his eyes fell on Ron.

Hermione was looking at Harry now as well, her head still resting on Ron's upper arm. Harry saw now that they were holding hands. He knew there was "stuff" going on in between Ron and Hermione, but really hadn't seen anything more than the way they had acted towards each other in fifth year. They were both chasing after one another, but neither had done much to establish a further connection. This was all when Hermione had Viktor, and by what Harry knew - they were no longer. Just friends. So, if things were as they seemed, it looked as though Hermione had her chance now. And, as it looked, willing to take it. Let's cross our fingers and hope Holly wakes up and thinks she's hallucinating when she sees Ron and Hermione are practically cuddling at the foot of her bed. She'll just roll over and pull the covers over her head... maybe start screaming for those images to leave her alone, but it's better that than... whatever else she might do.

"Hey, Ron. Did Hermione tell you-" Ron nodded. Harry teetered on whether or not to spring them with something about the "colony"... but opted to do so at a later time. "I was supposed come and get the two of you and bring you to Lupin's office."

Draco, who had turned around to face Harry now, put on a very fake pout. "Not me?" he said.

"Not you," confirmed Harry. Draco's gray eyes narrowed very slightly before he turned again and began his errant once more, his gaze set on a low table stacked with volumes pertaining to medical magic. Harry spoke to Ron and Hermione again, "Dumbledore sent me. He and McGonagall are talking to Lupin right now. I think, anyway." Hermione heaved a sigh and slowly stood up, letting go of Ron's hand. Ron got to his feet as well.

Draco turned a page in the heavy-looking brown book he was undoubtedly not supposed to be looking at (but he's Malfoy - why would he care?), and spoke up. "I can think of other things they could be doing," he said simply in a rather airy tone.

"Like what?" Hermione asked. Draco looked up and raised his eyebrows, leering at her. "Ugh! Malfoy... that's disgusting!" Hermione said, catching on, and wrinkling up her nose. Draco didn't look up from his book but his head turned as he looked from one page to the next.

"Don't I know it. Poor, poor Lupin," he replied, setting down the book and picking up another. "Desire is a madly unexplainable thing. But he's too young to result to this."

There was a brief pause as Draco opened the volume he had in his arms and dusted off the first page with his hand. "Let's go," Hermione said quickly, staring at Draco. Harry nodded, turned, and left - Hermione and Ron trailing him.

*()%()*

"Truly, the problem at hand," Dumbledore was saying, "isn't how Voldemort got away... it is where he's gone." They (Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall) were now sitting in two chairs in front of Lupin's desk. Lupin was growing fatigued just listening to them. Back and forth they were sharing theories and opinions. The flow of talk hardly broke, nearly as though they could telepathically tell each other what they were going to say, before they said it, so the other one could form an answer right away. He started drumming his fingers silently on the edge of his desk, looking at his thick and cut down fingernails.

McGonagall peered at him over her square spectacles and said, "That will be a matter to worry us following when we understand what allowed him to stand up and walk away, Albus. Who would have even fathomed that You-Know-" Dumbledore gave her a harsh and, at the same time, encouraging look. McGonagall paused and sighed... "All right, Voldemort," she corrected, "Who would have thought that Voldemort would be in the forest in the first place?"

Lupin, hearing this final sentence, looked up from his hand and at his colleagues (but, even after teaching there for a full year once before - he still felt like a student compared to them). "On that note," he said quietly, "Harry explained to me bits and pieces of some very interesting prophecies that he had... looked into." Lupin, knowing exactly how it was to skirt around the teachers, roaming the grounds with certain privileges (although being a werewolf wasn't a privilege in his mind... having an Invisibility Cloak, for example, was) didn't want to add that Harry had told him he had snuck into the forest once before - and this time only to investigate... not keep a promise to his godfather. Lupin, being constantly kind and understanding, wouldn't punish Harry and his comrades for breaking a few rules. Although, he thought as he ticked the trouble Harry had been getting into while he had been teaching at Hogwarts off on his fingers beneath his desk, the numbers are rising rather steadily....

"Prophecies? What kind of prophecies?" McGonagall asked, tone flat and knowing blank. Lupin raised an eyebrow at her and replied derisively, with slight caution.

"Something on the lines of 'an inspired utterance of a prophet viewed as a revelation of divine - will' or maybe 'a prediction of the future, given under-'"

"Yes, yes, Remus, no need for the sarcasm..." Lupin grinned boyishly. "I believe Minerva meant to ask of you what was said in these prophecies," Dumbledore said, cutting into Lupin's sentence and through McGonagall's dark and superior glare for instantaneous reply.

Lupin explained. "Talk of Dark magic, creatures, rising fame, victory and defeat... I believe Harry described a...script that they found written in Centaur that talked of evil in the vicinity-"

"In the vicinity?" McGonagall said, her voice high-pitched but still suspicious. "What do you mean?" Lupin contorted his eyebrows once more.

"A nearby, surrounding, or adjoining rejoin-" he began, putting on an airy tone. He couldn't be sure where he was getting his dictionary-sarcasm qualities, (who could be? Lupin was usually such a kind, content, easy-going guy...) but they were of good use in stalling, he supposed.

"I meant," McGonagall snapped, "where did Potter find these writings? And if they were in Centaur-how did he read them?"

"Er," Lupin said, casting a look at Dumbledore who nodded encouragingly, "well... Holly translated them. Apparently she studied Centaur when she was attending Three Winds."

"And where did they find these centaur compositions, Remus?" Dumbledore asked him rather slowly and definitely seriously. Lupin bit the inside of his cheek for a moment.

"Euh-" he began.

There was a knock at the door, much to Lupin's relief. He closed his mouth and slid out from behind his desk to answer it, giving him a bit more time to think if they pressed him on the question later. He pulled open the door and found himself looking straight into the round and fathomless emerald eyes of Harry, standing behind him, Ron and Hermione.

"We took about as long as we found physically possible," Harry affirmed, "and we left Malfoy with Holly." He gave Lupin a meaningful look.

"In translation," said Ron in an undertone, "'We walked ridiculously slow and left my sister with Slytherin slime. Let's get this over with before someone in the hospital wing gets severely hurt.'" It was easy to get along with Lupin, and talk to him as someone who you didn't have to pay too much respect to... he's the kind of person that you feel comfortable treating like family. Close family.

Lupin gave them a faint smile and stood aside to allow the three Gryffindors into his office.

*()%()*

A little while later Draco was sitting moodily at the foot of Holly's hospital bed, watching the infirmary nurse in the painting now packing bandages into what looked like a magical first aid kit. Madam Pomfrey had commanded him to stop looking through her medical magic books and messing with her various potions and tools. And any Malfoy denied of their right to snoop about was definitely a greatly vexed Malfoy.

There was a small noise of stretching fabric behind him, and he turned to look over his shoulder. Holly, who had been lying without moving on her back for a long time, was tossing from one side to the other. In a swift movement she grabbed the blankets that had been pulled over her and yanked them up, covering her head. Draco could see the bump-that-was-Holly shift a bit under the covers. He rubbed the back of his head.

"Black?" he said carefully, slowly getting up off the bed and moving to the bedside. There was a small moaning noise from beneath the covers in reply. Draco considered whether to go and alert Madam Pomfrey of Holly's... semi-conscious state, but decided against it.

"Black...wake up," he said, kneeling down on the floor thinking that if he got his new trousers dirty there would be house-elves with lives at stake. He pushed his hand on the side of the mattress, bouncing the bed slightly. Holly shifted under the covers and pulled the blankets tighter over her head. It seemed as though she thought it was just another morning, a close friend or relative trying to rouse her.

"Black," he said again.

"White, actually," said Holly, her voice slightly muffled but clear.

"What's that?" Draco said lightly. There was a sound from beneath the blankets, which sounded a bit like 'ahem'.

"It's white. Well, gray actually... you know, it's not too light. But not ba-lack." Draco stared at the lump in the bed.

There was a brief pause in all sound and movement. "Bugger," he said insincerely, "she's lost her final Gobstone." Holly, who was now clearly on her back under the covers, pulled the blankets down a little so Draco could see the her round honey-brown eyes and the bridge of her nose.

"Under the covers. It's gray," she said, her eyebrows coming together as though she were trying her hardest to explain a point. "Wacko," she added brightly.

Draco stared at her round eyes, boring into his innocently. "Wacko?" he echoed very quietly. "Black, are you feeling alright?" Holly let go of the blankets and pushed herself into a sitting position. She drew up her knees, making a mountainous lump in the covers.

"Peachy keen!" she said, "Although I feel like I've been bashed in the head with a kettle by a rather large mountain troll and buried in the snow for a few hours." Holly forced a bright smile, which ended up more or less a flash of teeth and raised eyebrows.

Draco examined the third of her he could see. Her hair was damp and falling in wet ringlets around her face, and nearly all the way down her back. How her hair was wet near her face was quite the mystery. Her cheeks were blushed pink from either the warming potions or simply the long exposure to cold weather. Her ears had stopped smoking from the Pepperup Potion, now.

"What's your name?" Draco asked, checking to see whether she was aware of who and where she was. Holly rolled her eyes and pushed some of her hair over her shoulder.

"Don't you know it?"

"I was hoping you'd tell me..."

"I don't have amnesia, Draco Malfoy, 6th-year Slytherin, Q/C, and Prefect. I'm perfectly aware of what's going on," she sniffed. Draco sighed.

"Good. If I were accused of depriving you of your surely wonderful memories... your oh-so-loving godbrother would probably attempt to hurt me with one of those big, heavy objects Gryffindors pride themselves in being able to lift and... bung." He smirked.

"Bung?"

"Bung."

"Okay." There was a brief pause. "Who says 'bung?'"

"Goyle."

"Okee doke," she said, glancing around at her surroundings. Her eyes traveled once around the room and then she looked back at Draco. Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly as for him, she reached out and touched the side of his face with her hand. He briefly noticed the fact they were soft and very warm. He gazed at her in shocked wonder. "Thanks for helping me out," she said kindly.

"Er... any time.... Maybe," he said slowly. Holly dropped her hand back to her side and smiled sweetly.

"Don't worry. After this I'll look at you like I always have." Draco raised an eyebrow at her and she mimicked him.

"And how's that?"

"As a spoiled, shrill little bastard who would rather chew off his own foot than do a good deed for someone else." She slid down in a lying position again, turned over so her back was facing him, and pulled the blankets up to her chin. At that moment, Madam Pomfrey, probably seeing movement, came out of her office.

"She's awake?" Draco nodded, tearing his eyes away from Holly's hair draped over her shoulder. "Is she acting normally?" Draco didn't answer. She strode over to the bed and stood at Holly's side.

"She'll be just fine," he replied, standing up and walking to sit at the foot of the bed once more and wait until he was 'home free'.

*()%()*

Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall had been questioning Harry, Ron, and Hermione about the predictions they had been reading into. They had avoided giving them too much information about slinking into the forest for clues... and successfully managed to escape inquiries by leaving it at that the tree they had seen the inscription on had been very near the edge of the forest, but they hadn't seen it ever again. Harry knew that with this he could compass to not be belatedly punished. He and Krum had been in the forest just a few steps before, and he had been scot free of trouble, due to the circumstances. He also had a small guilty feeling nagging at him - if he told the professors exactly where they had found the carved tree, they may have been able to help them understand more of what was going on. By the looks on Ron and Hermione's faces - it was probable that they felt the same.

He had the feeling the reason that he was to get Ron and Hermione was so that they would be quizzed on what had happened throughout the past day, but all it had been was talk of what Hagrid had told them, what they read up on, and what they found in the forest. Professor McGonagall had maintained that prophecies were hardly, if ever, reliable. Lupin, on the other hand, thought that the predictions definitely had the potential to be true, with the events that had been happening lately. Dumbledore seemed neutral in conversation, but surely held an opinion in mind. Harry, Ron, and Hermione - for the most part - just wanted to discuss something else. Life wasn't as fun when your own wasn't the center of it.

After giving Professor McGonagall all the names of the books they could remember reading out of on the subject, she had Hermione assist her in going to the library to check them out and show her what she had read. She left, still scoffing over the prophecies. Harry, Ron, and Hermione (perhaps even Dumbledore and Lupin) knew that Professor McGonagall thought that Divination was a very shaky and weak branch of magic - and didn't hold it in high respect as an important part of life in the magical community, or life at all, actually. But none the less she must have believed that the more information you could get on a subject, the better.

Now it was Dumbledore, Lupin, Ron, and Harry sitting in Lupin's office, all facing each other in silence for a few moments. After a few seconds Lupin cleared his throat and stated what was on his mind. "Harry... Ron... could you two re-account what happened in the forest? Professor Dumbledore has told me what Hermione explained to him, and now I'd like to hear your side of it."

"Alright," said Harry, "Where should we start?" There was a brief pause.

"The last time in which you saw Miss Black before today. Mr. Weasley... you first," Dumbledore said calmly. He folded his hands in his lap and looked at Ron, who went a bit pink but began to explain. Harry leaned back in his chair and listened.

"Last time I saw Holly before it happened..." he said quietly, "Well... probably sometime... late afternoon? Um... I think I saw her at dinner." Harry raised his eyebrows at Ron... and then remembered Hermione. Clearly, his friend had been paying attention to matters other than Holly... and although Harry didn't blame him, something clicked. He now had a better idea of why Holly may have run off that night.

"Harry?" said Lupin, "How about you?" Harry rapidly glanced around at each person in the room, in turn, and rubbed his hands together.

"Just before she left... I saw her sneaking off," Harry recollected slowly.

"Does Miss Black... creep about often?" Dumbledore asked.

"Pfff..." smirked Ron, "Yeah. Not a quality you'd want in a friend when you know how easily they could turn on you and... attack you." Ron shuddered. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and Lupin smiled in a criminal way. To the best of Harry's knowledge, they were probably both thinking back to the days of the Marauder's reign. Dumbledore may have not known about the illegal Animagus running about his school at that time, but then he had definitely known that Sirius, James, Lupin, and Peter had been breaking more than their quota of rules. Sirius and James especially.

"Must get that from her father. If I remember correctly... Charisse didn't 'sneak'," Dumbledore said. He smiled at the lighter turn of conversation.

"Yeah..." said Lupin, his face relaxed in mid-flashback. "Charisse was ridiculously clumsy." Dumbledore laughed quietly and nodded. Had he known Charisse well? Harry and Ron looked at each other and smiled. Holly had the tendency to fall over or roll off of things when she wasn't concentrating on keeping her cool. "Although," he continued with a grin, "Sirius always claimed she put her long limbs to good use when-" Lupin looked around and cleared his throat, smirk disappearing off of his face. "Never mind," he muttered.

Ron and Harry glanced at each other once more. Harry could see Ron suppressing a grin and Harry shook his head quickly to clear it from his thoughts. He didn't want to know, although he was quite sure he already did.

"To continue..." Dumbledore said, the twinkle in his eyes fading slightly, "you saw her just before she left? Did you ask Miss Black about where she was going?"

"I did. She said she was going on a walk..."

"Did she tell you why?" Dumbledore pressed.

"Honestly, Professor, she wasn't about to go and seek out You-Know-Who..." said Lupin. Harry rubbed the back of his neck, and before Dumbledore could say anything to Lupin (although it didn't look as though he would) replied.

"She didn't tell me why she was leaving." That was quite truthful.

"Well then, do you have a fair idea?" Lupin inquired. Harry cast a quick sidelong glance at Ron and shook his head.

"No," he lied.

*()%()*

"I can't fall asleep. Why can't I fall asleep?" Holly grumbled, rolling over onto her back and pressing her fingers over her eyes. Draco turned his body so his side was facing her.

"Well, Madam Pomfrey just poked and prodded at you to check that you're all right for a good five minutes. I wouldn't be able to sleep after that," Draco stated, looking at her. Holly took her fingers away from her eyes and glared at him redundantly.

She pushed at her eyes again. Draco wondered why she didn't just rub them, like normal people. "I feel like I have something sticky smooshed on my eyes..." she said quietly. Holly sat up suddenly and looked around. She whispered, "Oh yeah...." Draco watched as Holly grabbed her cloak, which was hovering near her bed and looked at the inside of it. Near the buttonholes she pulled her wand out of two small loopholes of white fabric and then shot a water-looking substance into either of her eyes and blinked. "All better!" she said brightly, setting her wand down on top of her clothes on the bedside table.

Draco stared. "You are one sad, strange little woman," he said, observing her rapid mood change along with the fact she had just shot water into her eyes. That had been what it looked like anyway.

"Sure, whatever," said Holly, doing what looked like flicking dust off of her thumb. Draco tore his eyes away. He had never watched someone lose his or her mind. After a while she began to hum. Draco despised humming. Draco, in fact, regarded music, in general, with abhor.

"I'm very sorry to interrupt your opening number," he said grimly, "but please.... Stop."

"Why?" asked Holly, crestfallen.

"I hate music," he stated truthfully. Holly looked shocked and horrified.

"Why?!" She nearly shrieked it this time. Draco glanced at her and then looked back away. It was hard to look Holly in the eye very long. Or perhaps it was only this way with him, he wasn't sure.

"I just do," he said harshly. Holly sunk back into the pillows slightly, her shoulders relaxing.

"Sorry!" she wheezed, waving her hands around a bit. They sat in silence a while before Holly started humming again, probably in experiment.

"Shut it," Draco snapped.

"Wasn't open," Holly said lightly, glancing up in the general direction of the curtains pulled back against the wall.

"You - knew - what - I - meant," he said slowly, narrowing his eyes at her. Holly flashed him an innocent look. Draco, not spending time with this girl, had no idea what she was like most of the time... but if she was like this... it was only another reason he was overjoyed about being a Slytherin versus being a Gryffindor.

"Mayyyybe!"

Draco looked at her. "What is your problem, girl?"

"Ha!" rejoined Holly, her playfulness abandoning her. "My problem? Excuse me, but you're the one sitting at the end of my bed... leave why don't you?" she snapped.

"I have to stay, otherwise I would have left you here ages ago," he retorted, his gray eyes full of sleek malevolence. Holly's round eyes slipped to near-slits too.

"Because you were told to?" she questioned.

"Right."

"By who?"

"Lupin."

"Lupin?" Holly repeated. "Since when do you obey the simple words of professors when they aren't greasy-haired conger eels such as... Snape?" Draco didn't really have much of an answer for this one. Honestly, he usually didn't listen to the professors or any other authority unless it was his father of Professor Snape. "Uh huh? Why don't you just run along now so I can get on with lying in this highly uncomfortable bed in - peace?"

"My apologies, but I'm trapped here with you until the true heroes return from their conference," he sneered, "Besides... you're rather comical while only half-there." Holly growled at him.

"Next time I'm trapped somewhere alone with you there had better be a large fire-breathing monster there in addition. And you had better not piss on my ashes you hideous, immoral troglodyte," she snapped.

"Anything else?" drawled Draco, intrigued, and raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah!" she exclaimed in a clipped voice, pulling the blankets up to her shoulders. Draco had gone from being slightly annoyed to amused. He needed to hold true to always being cool.

"And that is...?"

"Get a tan!" At this she pulled the covers over her head and curled into a frustrated ball underneath them, shutting Draco out from view. Draco smiled and shook his head sadly, looking around the room once more.

*()%()*

Meanwhile, Hermione and Professor McGonagall were scanning the library for a number of different book titles. Hermione had sat down one of the books she had found on one of the tables, and McGonagall was bending over it, reading it with an expression of disapproval.

After about five minutes Hermione had found all the books from the information on the fears of centaurs and acromantulas, prophecies based on planet alignments, and even a couple on the accuracy of centaur predictions (she had read into these without giving much detail to the rest of the crew). There was a large stack on the table of thick volumes, and Professor McGonagall gave her a half-admiring half-exasperated look. Admiring on the fact Hermione had looked so thoroughly through the subject, exasperated on either what the subject was or how much research this may mean for someone else.

At that moment there were loud, hurried footsteps entering the library. There was a telltale hiss of "SHH!" from Madam Pince (not another soul was in the library that Hermione had seen) and the footsteps quieted. A black-haired head poked around the side of the bookshelf. It took a moment for Hermione to register - that was Cho Chang. Harry's love, Cho Chang. She and Cho had never really met, but Hermione recognized the face.

"You're Harry's friend, right?" Cho said quickly but kindly, her eyes on Hermione. She nodded slowly, wondering if she had understood correctly that Harry and Cho weren't speaking to each other. Cho emerged completely from behind the bookshelf and took a step towards her. "Hi, Professor," she said hurriedly, glancing up at Professor McGonagall.

"Good afternoon, Chang," McGonagall said, eyeing Cho suspiciously. Cho gave her a somewhat hasty smile and turned back to Hermione. Hermione, who was rather short, was still a bit taller than Cho. It was nice, towering (well... almost towering) over someone for a change.

"Where is he? What happened to his sister...? Her name is Holly...right?" Hermione stared. They had been back in the building for perhaps a little over an hour and Cho Chang, someone in a different house and different year, knew this much? Alright, she didn't know very much - but it seemed like a lot considering that, other than the professors and Madam Pomfrey, no one in the school had been alerted of what happened other than Harry, Draco, Holly (basically), Ron, and herself.

"How did you know about that?" she managed after a bit of marveling.

"I met Ron Weasley's sister on the stairs, she was going to see Lupin with a question on an essay or something... she said she hadn't seen Harry or Ron all day... and before that I talked to Mandy Brocklehurst about what Terry Boot had told her about how he had seen Harry coming in from outside with that Malfoy character and heading towards the hospital wing... and he was-"

"Oh my... slow down!" Hermione said. Cho hadn't stopped to take a breath yet. Cho continued on with saying something about how she had tried to get into the infirmary but Madam Pomfrey said that she didn't need any people in there gawking at her patients and she'd gotten enough of that over the years before she heeded Hermione and stopped completely. Harry hadn't mentioned anything about people seeing him during his trip to the hospital wing to Hermione, but he hadn't been questioned about it, so he really didn't have a reason to. Cho heaved a couple of breaths, lack of air and lots of exhaling getting to her. "Do you need to see Harry?"

"Yes, yes I was considering that..." Cho said simply, nodding. Professor McGonagall hadn't said another thing yet, she simply watched Cho with her eyes slightly widened.

"Is it an emergency, Chang?" Professor McGonagall asked, raising her eyebrows suspiciously. Cho considered this for a moment before nodding once more. Professor McGonagall heaved a sigh. "Very well, then. I'm going to my office with Miss Granger but I believe that Potter is either still in Professor Lupin's office or has returned to the hospital wing." She gave McGonagall and Hermione a small smile of thanks before turning on her heel and hurrying out of the library.

*()%()*

After, quite thoroughly, explaining all the happenings in the forest... Harry and Ron had encountered a small disagreement. It had all started when Lupin asked Dumbledore whether they should return to the forest to do a more thorough search (at this moment, Harry had forgotten about 'the colony') for Voldemort, and Harry answered.

"Really," he had said, "I doubt Voldemort is even on the grounds any longer. He's gone... probably got out of the boundaries and Apparated three countries away."

"Yeah..." said Ron, "But what if that's not the case? I bet Malfoy's Stunning spell, if it weren't faulty, would have kicked in when he was halfway out of the forest and he collapsed right there. We should search it."

Harry shook his head, recalling something about Dumbledore sending someone searching for Voldemort.... "No, it's pointless. If he were on grounds someone would have found him by now. Professor Dumbledore, is someone owling officials in Hogsmeade?"

Dumbledore took a breath to answer, but Ron cut in. "It's not pointless, Harry!" he exclaimed, on the verge of snapping. When it came to the point of Ron snapping, you knew he was angry. "I can't believe you'd say that!"

Harry raised his eyebrows at his friend. "Why not?" he asked slowly, shaking his head.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Because," he groaned, "you're the Boy-Who-Lived! Your soul purpose in life is that you're supposed to be the hero who kills off You-Know-Who once and for all!"

Harry didn't realize that truly, Ron hadn't meant that one bit. Well, maybe he had meant it a little... but that was Ron. He was rather sentimental, but was seldom aware of when he hurt someone. Often his mouth spoke without assistance of his brain.

"My 'soul purpose in life is' what?" Harry asked, his eyes widening in shock and a tad of rage. (Who ever thought rage could come in tads... would 'a tad of rage' be a near-climax of anger? THOUGHT FOR THE DAY! ...Just kidding...). "I'm sorry, but I have more on my mind than saving the day!"

"Well you always tend to be the one who jumps at the chance to pull anyone out of mortal peril, don't you?!" retorted Ron, only on an edgy reply. Once again... Ron was probably going to regret saying that.

"I apologize that it's in my nature to want to help people out, Ron!" he hissed. Ron opened his mouth to reply, his brow furrowing in frustration, but a knock on the door made him refrain. It was common knowledge that yelling words of anger at Harry Potter would make you popular in no place but the Slytherin house.

There was a brief silence, as nobody moved. Lupin was looking at Harry, Dumbledore was looking at Ron, and both Harry and Ron were looking at the door. After a few seconds the door opened a small bit and a bright red head poked through the space and looked around. It was Ginny.

*()%()*

Hermione and Professor McGonagall had arrived in her office. The professor sat down behind her desk after both she and Hermione had set down the books they had been carrying. She cleared her throat. "Although, Miss Granger, that I find that most of what these books contain just a bit more Divination, Dumbledore does consider it is worth a try." She sighed. "And for the first time in years, I will commence in...studying." Hermione smiled as she watched Professor McGonagall, looking sleepy, pull a book off the top of the stack and open it sadly.

*()%()*

Ginny's eyes traveled from Lupin to Dumbledore, than continued to Harry and finally Ron. "Am I interrupting something?" she asked, averting her gaze back to Dumbledore. Very quickly he looked from Harry to Ron and back to Ginny.

"Please do," he said with a small smile, his eyes twinkling kindly. Ginny opened the door a bit wider. She looked at her brother and narrowed her eyes.

"Are you in trouble?" she hissed. Ron's mouth twitched and he shrugged, giving her a reluctant yet, all the same, brotherly wink. Ginny looked at him suspiciously and stepped in. "I was going to talk to Professor Lupin about my semester report..." she said, extremely slowly. This is how she put caution into her speech, thinking about each word and how she fit it into the phrase, no matter how simple it would be to say. "But now I'm dying to know..."

Harry raised his eyebrows at her, bending back his head to look up at her. Ginny knew this was definitely the first time Harry had to look up to her, but he was sitting in a chair, so it ruined her moment of I've-finally-inherited-that-Weasley-height. All the same, it didn't matter. The way his messy hair fell back away from his eyes was one of those tiny details that only Ginny could love, she was sure of it. "What happened?"

Ron groaned and put his face in his hands, rubbing at his skin as though to wipe away water. Perhaps it relieved you of being exhausted, Ginny didn't know. She was a girl. What kind of witch would rub their face when it risked washing away a weakening cosmetic charm? Learning those things cost money! But due to those "tricky" friends who watch their companions applying the magazine-add-purchased charm and escape the Memory Charm that hits the applicant right in the face after saying the correct incantation... well... they didn't cost money anymore! WGC (Witch Glamour Cosmetics) was still trying to develop ways that each charm required different incantations, and the same one could not be performed twice so they would continue making money off of it. She shook her head and returned to the matter at hand.

"Holly was kidnapped, Transposing Spell made her exchange bodies with You-Know-Who, set out to find her, Malfoy switched them back, she's in the hospital wing, had a bunch of hexes on her that were removed, You-Know-Who has disappeared mysteriously from the forest... blah, blah, blah," Ron deadpanned.

There was a pause before Lupin said, "I think the Daily Prophet is providing a summer internship program..." He grinned. Ron looked at him and suppressed a smile.

"Was that 'breaking news' worthy?" he asked in a faked hopeful tone.

"Switch the first 'blah' with the second 'blah' and I say the clipping is ready to hit the front page!" Lupin suggested brightly. Ron laughed softly.

"10 points for creative detail," added Harry, who must have forgotten he was to be angry with Ron. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. They all looked back at Ginny who was staring at them all with a shocked expression.

"What?" she breathed.

"Don't you get it?" Ron asked. He smirked at her in the way you'd smile at a very young child who didn't understand a comment with an older-age content that everyone in the room began laughing at, "Lupin's saying I should-"

"Not that!" she snapped impatiently, giving him a disgusted look. "What happened?"

"Oh..." said Harry, "That...." He glanced up at her again with a more sober play of feature. "How'd you know?"

"Cho Chang by means of Mandy Brocklehurst through Terry Boot," she explained hastily, wanting a more detailed answer. She didn't notice Harry's small convulsive jerk because of the first name she mentioned.

Harry had taken a deep breath to begin explaining when a second head poked around the door, which Ginny had left open. Although this one, rather unexpectedly, belonged to none other than Cho Chang.

*()%()*

A/N: Okay. I didn't get quite as far into this chapter as I had wanted (no Inheirpikus Charm... yadda, yadda) but it ended up getting rather long and mostly a rickety explanation of what has been happening throughout the last couple chapters... but really. I know what things I want to happen... problem is... I'm having trouble GETTING THERE. Bear with me as updating takes quite a while because of mounting schoolwork and I've got a beta now. Thank goodness. But, it's a bit later than I would want to get one THUS... she's still reading through the other chapters (...I think). Big thanks to her anyway. J And, of course, my reviewers.

Next... I'm considering (maybe) changing the name of the Inheirpikus Charm to something a little more logical. If so - I'll inform you. Sorry for the... inconvenience. But I'd go back and change it in previous chapters (tough task) before starting up a sequel, for example.

And the font-changing attempt...I hope that works.

NEXT CHAPTER: Cho and Harry have a little talk... and perhaps it will cause Harry to have a little chat with Ginny too. Holly starts going back to normal... we read the letters she's gotten (from Sirius, her "Grandmother Serene" and another that she's received from a friend) and we look into her Charm. We follow our heroes to class and a couple to the library. A little Hermione/Ron to the notice of others. Another change in the colour of a certain individual's hair. (Let's just hope I can get this far this time... * crosses fingers *)

QUOTE: "Influence" - Korean Proverb. Quoted in: Alan L. Mackay, The Harvest of a Quiet Eye (1977).

> The quote had little to do with the chapter, but it made me think of Voldemort... so there it is. <