Helpless

Chapter 1- Breakfast Post

Harry Potter shuffled into the Great Hall and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. Behind him, he could hear his best friend, Ron Weasley, bump into the edge of one of the large doors and swear in a sleepy voice. Bleary-eyed and exhausted, they wandered towards the Gryffindor table.

"You're late," Hermione Granger said perkily without looking up from her copy of Hogwarts, A History, which was propped behind her breakfast plate. She shovelled a forkful of scrambled eggs into her mouth as her eyes scanned the pages. Beside her, her best friends groaned in unison.

"Late night," Ron grumbled, sitting down heavily.

"Divination homework," Harry added, grabbing a bowl of porridge and dropping it at his place at the table with an unceremonious plonk. He and Ron had been up well into the night finishing an elaborate essay on the origins of various decks of both Wizarding and Muggle tarot cards that they had been assigned together. Professor Trelawney had offered up a short list of possible independent study topics in lieu of an midterm exam, explaining that she had seen (through her dubious "third eye") that a number of them would prefer a chance to research more deeply the advanced methods of Divination. While Parvati, Lavender and (at the demand, Harry suspected, of his formidable grandmother) Neville had opted for the exam option, Harry and Ron had jumped at the chance to opt out of at least one test in their stressful fifth year.

Dudley, Harry's whalish cousin, had gone through a "mystical" phase this past summer, which made Harry's time at Number Four, Privet Drive both highly stressful and oddly hilarious. Apparently, his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon saw their little angel's newfound interest in the magical world as a sign of Harry's presence "perverting" their household, and had attempted to purge their house of all things wizarding. However, Dudley (in perhaps the first decent thing he'd done in his entire life) had thrown a fit to rival his youthful tantrums, stopping the Dursleys from taking everything Harry owned to the local dump, and the matter was eventually left alone. Harry found the attention Dudley was suddenly paying to everything he did highly preferable to previous summers of feeling like a Quidditch ball (being chased, caught and beaten), and did all he personally could to ensure Dudley's phase lasted at least the whole summer. He encouraged Dudley's interest in what Harry knew as Divination, telling him stories of Trelawney's classes and, eventually, all his times at Hogwarts. It had been the best summer he could remember.

Eventually, Dudley's interest with the magical side of the world had waned, but his behaviour towards Harry remained far more respectful, even friendly, than ever before. When Harry had left for The Burrow for the last two weeks of the summer, Dudley had given his cousin a collection of various different packs of tarot cards he had screamed and cajoled his parents into buying for him. At the Burrow, Harry and Ron had examined them and learned loosely how to do various spreads, so when the option arose later in the year as a Divination project, they had jumped at the chance to continue their experiments for course credit. Professor Trelawney had allowed them to do the project together on the condition that they examine both Muggle and wizard tarot decks in depth, however, so their "easy marks" had quickly turned into the most elaborate essay (at least ten rolls of parchment altogether) either of them had ever done.

"I told the two of you to start on that way earlier," Hermione was saying, muffled by a bite a toast and assuming an "I know best" expression that made Ron scowl. It was a mark of just how tired he was that he didn't have a sniping response back.

"I thought you'd be impressed that we're challenging ourselves more this year," Harry said, looking down and starting as he realized he was spooning Marmite into his porridge. Making a face, he pushed it aside and grabbed a piece of toast. Hermione looked up from her book.

"Oh, well, of course I am, I'm proud of the both of you, but honestly..." she started, but whatever she was going to say was drowned out by the fluttering of hundreds of owls entering the Hall. Everyone looked up instinctively, awaiting the rain of post.

Harry raised an eyebrow as he caught a flash of white among the mass of brown and tawny feathers. Hedwig landed by his plate and dropped a package off, dipping her beak into the ruined porridge and eating heartily. Turning, he saw Pigwidgeon flying frantically around Ron's head as the red-haired boy tried sleepily to snatch him out of the air. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a letter flutter down onto Hermione's plate as well, but was distracted by the small rectangular package in front of him. He grabbed the small attached note and read to himself:

Harry,

I had to come home this weekend - I had a toothache and couldn't eat any sweets whatsoever, so I came back to go to a special dentist in London. I needed a root canal! Isn't that horrid? Anyway, while Dad and I were out I picked these up for you and was just wondering how the post worked there when your owl showed up. Dad didn't see it, lucky for us both... thought you might be interested. I remembered your essay you need to write. Hope they're interesting!

PS. Don't send the owl to Smeltings with a response again - I got lots of wonky looks last time. Don't they have normal post or anything?

Harry rolled his eyes, but grinned nonetheless. They had been in occasional contact since they'd gone back to school, and it felt... nice, Harry felt, to have someone in his family who was alive and seemed to like him. He pulled open the wrapping on the package to reveal a lovely, very new set of tarot cards - Dragon Tarot, according to the box. He found himself wishing that he and Ron had another week to work these into the essay, which was quite unlike him - but he could always take them down to Hagrid and show off the sketches. He nudged Ron and showed them to him, who seemed somewhat more awake as he read the Weasley family monthly newsletter.

"Ron, are you done?" Harry said, gesturing vaguely at the short roll of parchment. Ron nodded slowly, his eyes still scanning down the page, then rolled it back up and straightened in his chair.

"I am now. What's up?"

"Dudley sent me these. Thought they might be useful with our essay." He held out the pack of cards to Ron, who eyed them with interest.

"I'm never going to get used to the way these don't move... but they're lovely drawings. Pity we finished it last night."

Harry nodded. "Which reminds me, we've got that in a few minutes... we should probably get going. Good thing about this essay - once we've handed it in, we can go back to the dorms and catch up on some sleep before Care Of Magical Creatures." The latter class of the day wasn't until after lunch - Ron and Harry had spent many an early morning cursing the fact that, were it not for Divination, they'd have a solid four extra hours in bed.

"Yep..." Ron said, gathering up his stuff. He stood at the same time as Harry and they both slung their bags over their shoulders. "Hagrid should like those."

"'Spect so. Hermione, you coming?" Harry said, his back to his friend.

There was no response.

"Hermione?" Harry turned around. Hermione was sitting at the table, her copy of Hogwarts, A History still precariously balanced in front of her. Her eyes, however, had stopped scanning the page and were now unfocused, staring into blank space. It reminded Harry terrifyingly of the time she had been Petrified, and (mainly to reassure himself) he poked her in the shoulder.

She started and looked at the floor.

"I have to... there's something I have to see Professor Dumbledore about," she muttered, not meeting either of their eyes.

"Are you alright?" Ron said softly. She nodded urgently.

"I'm fine, I just... there's... I'll see you later." Forgetting her book bag, she instead grabbed the letter from in front of her and walked shakily up to the teachers' table. Harry and Ron made to wait for her, until Dumbledore ushered her out of the Great Hall through one of the back doors and they realized they were bound to be late. Reluctantly, they set out for the North Tower.

* * *

Harry awoke almost an hour later to a somewhat frantic pounding on the dormitory door. He and Ron had wandered back to their bedroom after dropping off their essays, and both had fallen asleep almost instantly when their heads hit the pillow. Harry muttered and looked at the clock, which told him they had at least another hour before they needed to be down at Hagrid's hut. Groaning, he rolled out of bed and headed for the door, opening it slowly. This better be...

"Lavender?" he said blearily. Lavender Brown looked flushed and nervous standing outside the door. She stammered slightly when she spoke, which was entirely out of character.

"Harry, I'm sorry to wake you, but she's gone. Hermione's gone."