They were nearing the portrait of the Fat Lady when Harry suddenly stopped. An odd expression crossed his face which Hermione immediately noticed.

            "What is it?" she inquired, genuinely concerned.

            "I left my wand down at the pitch, I'd better go and get it. It may not still be there tomorrow morning," Harry said. He looked a little anxious about it.

            "You had your wand? Are you sure, I don't remember you-" she began.

            "I left it in the Slytherin stands so I would remember to get it. I figured I would remember if I left it in Slytherin. I really have to get it," Harry said. He turned around and began marching back. She came up next to him.

            "I'll go with you," she said as her yawn came into completion.

            "No. If we get caught, we'll loose twice as many points, and you're tired anyway. I'll be fine," Harry tried. She didn't stop or turn around.

            "I was just going to keep you company" she said. He stopped suddenly.

            "Look, Hermione. I really don't need you to come with me on this. I am just getting my wand and coming right back. You should go to sleep. We have classes tomorrow and you don't need to be yawning through them. Just go back to the common room. I assure you I'll be fine." His words were sharper than she expected, and she felt slightly insulted. He turned sharply and started down the many staircases back to the main entrance. This time she didn't follow him. She hung her head and kicked at invisible stones as she walked slowly back to the Fat Lady. 

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            Harry sighed as soon as he was out of hearing distance of Hermione. He wanted to be kinder to her, but he didn't have the time, and his patience was running out. He silenced his feet with 'Quietus' as he ran through the castle. In only a very short amount of time he made it to the entrance hall. He glanced around, before cracking open the door and slipping into the darkness. The overcast evening made the world very dark, a good cover for what he was doing. He stepped away from the entrance and down the steps until he was about halfway to the hut of the keeper of the keys. He picked up a blade of grass and placed it taught between his two thumbs. He brought his thumbs up to his lips, and blew.

            The sound was loud, and he was sure people in the castle would hear, but he was betting that he could get away before they found him. He waited a second. Nothing happened. He blew three more loud notes. He waited a little longer this time. And there it was; a faint barking to his right. Harry turned into a creature and listened. His hearing was sharper as a creature. He could tell how far away the barking was. Not numerically, but instinctively, he knew how far he had to go. He took off at a sprint, and he was pleased with his speed. No human could catch him when he was in this form. It wasn't long before a he let out a soft growl. He got one in return. He walked over to it, only thirty feet within the forbidden forest, and there was a large, shaggy, black dog. Harry turned back, and smiled. He had missed this.

            "I have something to show you," Harry said, as the dog became Harry's godfather.

            "Well, let's see it." There was a pop, and Harry's creature of a large brown bear was not there, instead, was a complete animagus form of a black panther. It blended in so well in the darkness, that Sirius could only make out the eyes. There was another soft pop, and his godson was standing again, and simply beaming. "Well done, you're a quick study when you have a good teacher," said Sirius, as he blew on invisible rings and cleaned them on his shirt, looking very much pompous and arrogant. Harry laughed.

            "It took the longest time to do the face. It was so hard to get the eyes and the nose lined up. More than once I thought I had gone too far and messed myself up for life," Harry said, as his smile never faltered.

            "Well, it happens to the best of us. How much time do you have?" Sirius asked.

            "All night, why?" Harry returned.

            "I need to talk to you about something. I need to train your thinking, so we can fool the aurors. I was hoping you'd be able to spend the night with me. Are you sure no one is going to go looking for you, no one is waiting up for you?" Sirius said, with a sly wink.

            "I'm sure" Harry said. Sirius signaled for Harry to follow, and they transformed before walking slowly, deeper into the forest.

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            At that time, there was someone waiting up for him. Hermione was sitting in the chair by the fire, waiting for Harry to come back from getting his wand. He had told her to go to sleep, but she felt that it was her responsibility to make sure he didn't loose them house points, or even get killed. She had a hell of a time keeping her eyes opened, as sleep fought for its way. She watched as most of the students departed and went to bed, and she became increasingly worried as time went by. Maybe he got caught. Maybe one of the creatures came out of the forest and ate him. Maybe he would never be seen again. She shivered despite herself.

            She kept checking the clock. Midnight, one o'clock, two o'clock, sometime after that she lost the battle and sleep claimed her, but not before she had one final thought, 'If he's dead and rotting, then it's his own bloody fault.'

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            Harry sighed as he scaled the stairs. It had been an exhausting night. He would now have to think of everything about Sirius two different ways. He had to calculate the next time he would see his godfather…in hours. He had to think of hours as days. He was going to see Sirius in twelve days, he had to think of it as being 288 days. He was going to see Sirius in four days, he had to think of it as ninety six days. All this effort for aurors. Damn aurors. Damn bureaucracy. Damn society. He didn't like having to do all this extra work 'just-in-case' someone found out who he really was. Right now he was going to take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, and sleep through whatever classes he had today.

            He smiled as he touched his neck and arms. Sirius had cut him up real good, with the biting and scuffling they had done, but as soon as Harry was human again, all the marks from the few hours they spent playing in the forest were gone. He was still dirty and smelled like…dung, oddly he felt very happy about that. He wondered if there was something wrong with him. He got to the Fat Lady, who was still sleeping.

            "Fairy Tails," Harry said.

            "Sorry, I don't care for such stories," the Fat Lady responded, despite appearing to still be asleep.

            "Not tales, as in a story. Tails of a Fairy. Fairy Tails!" Harry said. He was too tired for this.

            "Why didn't you say so in the first place?" She asked sleepily as she opened for him. He looked at her with frustration before walking in, and slamming the portrait behind him harder than he needed to. The sound of the door slamming awoke the one person in the common room. He suddenly wished he could go back twenty seconds and enter quietly but it was too late. She looked at him, surprise written all over her face. She glanced outside, at the brightening day, glanced at her watch, and then glared at him. He knew she was about to yell so he ran over and covered her mouth with his hand. He wasn't a second too soon. She started to struggle against him, but he was too strong.

            "I'll let you go, just don't yell, don't yell and I'll let you go, ok? Just promise me you won't yell. Do you promise?" He asked. He waited until she said something into his hand which vague resembled 'I promise.' She glared at him, and true to her promise, she didn't yell. She glared and her jaw was tight, probably keeping the yells inside her mouth…for now.

            "Did you find your wand?" she hissed. He sheepishly pulled the slender wooden object from his pocket. She still glared. "I was up until two o'clock waiting for you. And did you come back? No! You were off probably getting…doing something illegal and you lied to me! How could you look me in the eye and lie to me!?!?!?" she said, her volume growing.

            "I had good reason," Harry responded. He couldn't think of anything to say.

            "Of course you did…" she said sarcastically, "…otherwise, you wouldn't have ruddy done it, would you?" she hissed.

            "Look, if you went to bed like I told you to do, we wouldn't be in this situation" Harry responded. He needed to say something clever. He had to beat her in this wresting of minds. To his amazement, she started chuckling.

            "Would that have change the fact that you lied to me? Would it?" she pressed. "What was so important that you had to wander around all night, and lie to me to get me off your back?" His face fell at this statement. He looked down at his feet. It was as if he was admitting guilt. That, or he was trapped.

            "I can't tell you," he said sullenly.

            "Why not?" she asked. Her voice no longer held the malice.

            "Because it's not my decision to make. I can't tell you. People will get in trouble. People who are innocent" Harry said. He was back to looking her in the eye, and she saw that he was deeply affected by this.

            "I thought you told me just last night that you could trust me," she said. She didn't mean for it to come out as harshly as it did.

            "I do, but…I just can't tell you. If it was up to me I would, but it's not. I'm…sorry," he said.

            "I think I should turn you in to Professor McGonagal and have her ask you where you were last night" Hermione sneered. She was getting fed up with this. He stopped and seemed to think this over. He seemed to feel that this wasn't a bad option for him. She looked him over, and noticed the condition he was in. He smelled like soil, and he was absolutely covered in dirt. He spent the entire night outside, that much was obvious. She suddenly had a sharp pang of guilt. If whatever it was, it was enough to drive someone to spend the whole night outside, it had to be important.

            "We can go to Professor McGonagal if you like. She would understand," Harry said.

            "How can she understand what you can't tell her?" Hermione mocked.

            "She knows things that will allow her to understand. I am more than willing to speak with her, although going to Professor Dumbledore would be preferable," Harry said thoughtfully. Hermione fell into a thoughtful silence. "You think it over, while I take a shower," Harry declared. He didn't wait for a response as he climbed up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.

            She waited, and straightened herself out. After a few minutes Harry came back down in clean clothes and was stench free. She was pleased by this. It was a lot easier to be angry at him when he was clean. It was still much too early for everyone to be waking, so she was relatively confident she had some more time to chastise him.

            "So…" she began, her mind searching for a place to continue. Unfortunately, anything she had planned to say flew out the window.

            "Yes?" Harry asked. He sat down, and she noticed that he opened the transfiguration textbook and pulled out a parchment and a never-dip quill.

            "You didn't do your homework, did you?" she said as if she was speaking down to a child.

            "I didn't have time" he retorted. She was surprised to see how fast he was writing. It appeared as if the tip of the quill never left the page.

            "Why, what were you doing?" she asked. He glanced up at her with a look that clearly said 'do-you-really-think-I'm-that-stupid?' He went back to his work, and she began to read it from over his shoulder. His writing was a bit sloppier than she was used to, and the grammatical errors were in plenty, but in only a few minutes he was done with an essay that took her the greater part of three hours. She shook it off, telling herself that she was going to get a much, much, better mark on it anyway. She was going to begin reprimanding him once again, but to her amazement he pulled the extremely large History of Magic textbook from his very small pocket. He pulled out another blank parchment and was off again, writing faster than she'd ever seen. She sat down across from him and picked up his transfiguration text. If she was going to wait here, she could at least occupy herself.

            She kept glancing up as he scribbled rapidly across the parchment. She was sure if it had been paper instead of parchment that it would have torn. He was soon done with the History of Magic essay and rooting through various pockets before finding his potions textbook. She saw him copy the potion down before explaining its' uses. She glanced at the stairs to the dormitories as students began to wander down, drunk with sleep and ready for breakfast. They passed by Harry and Hermione, and gave knowing gazes to Harry; they had been in the same situation before, rushing to do the work after an evening of other more interesting activities, it was all too common. Harry closed his potions text and looked over at Hermione.

            "What do we have after potions today?" he asked. She momentarily debated whether telling him to find out for himself was a proper thing to do.

            "Defense against the dark arts," Hermione said. Harry nodded happily. This would be their first defense against the dark arts class, which meant there was no homework for him to do. He stood and strode quickly to the portrait of the fat lady. "Wait! Where are you going?" she asked accusingly.

            "To breakfast?" he said, as if it were obvious. Hermione kicked herself for forgetting the morning meal, and stood to follow. She jogged until she came alongside of him, and made sure he saw her constant waves of distrustful looks in his direction. He ignored them and sat between Dean and Seamus at the Gryffindor table. Being blocked out, she walked all the way around the table and took a seat on the other side, across from Harry. They were discussing Harry's quidditch performance the night before. Harry explained what had happened, and that he would be given the chance of being the seeker for Gryffindor. Dean and Seamus were thrilled. Seamus had described the game in total detail to Dean during the last few days using all sorts of books and posters. Dean had become a fanatic despite never having seen a game.

            Harry turned the discussion over to more sensitive issues, as the three of them started talking in hushed voices. Hermione nibbled her food as she glared at him. How could he be so clueless? She knew he saw that she was giving him her death stare, but he didn't react. He brushed her off and ignored her. Did he think that he was above everyone else and could be unresponsive to her anger?

            She did notice something. Harry kept yawning. He was tired. She noted the circles under his eyes and she turned back to her eggs. She ate more diligently and she was soon satisfied by the meal. Harry had eaten a lot, but nothing compared to the boy named Ronald who, sitting next to Dean, had consumed more than she thought was humanly possible. Harry stood and suppressed a yawn as he walked with Seamus out of the room. Dean started discussing electricity with Ron who seemed utterly fascinated with the concept. Hermione sighed and picked up her rucksack. It was time to get to class.

            Hermione watched Harry throughout the day. He finished the assignment in transfiguration and slept the last twenty minutes of class. He slept entirely through History of Magic and lunch, though he did eat very quickly before returning to his slumber. He finished the Rattikis Potion early and slept the rest of class and amazingly enough, Snape let him. And then came defense against the dark arts. Harry seemed to be more awake for that class, as they all entered and took their seats.

            "My name is Professor Klein. Defense Against the Dark Arts. It used to be the most important subject in this school but now it takes second seat to Transfiguration and Charms. It's sad, really. I don't know what they expect me to do with you first years. You don't know enough magic to actually do anything, so I suppose I will have to teach you something. How boring. Someone tell me what a dark art is? What are these dark arts you're supposed to defend against? You." The woman said. She wasn't young, but she wasn't old. Maybe she was in her forties. She seemed disciplined and cynical, but carried an air of respect around her. Hermione put down her hand.

            "Yes. The dark arts are characterized by magic pertaining to certain subjects or types of magic. Such as magic surrounding the dead and death" Hermione said excitedly. The woman leaned against her desk and was thoughtful for a few seconds.

            "Rubbish. Anyone else?" she looked around, registering the looks of shock on the student's faces, and the humiliation on the girl who had answered.  "I'm not going to be friendly with the lot of you. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. You need to know this stuff. Now, does anyone else have an idea?" She saw a hand go up. It was a boy who was sitting in the back corner, and looked like he was ready to pass out.

            "Any magic used for dark or negative purposes in the eyes of society" he said dully.

            "Excellent. There is nothing different between dark magic, and light magic. Magic is magic. And the definition of dark magic changes so often that they might as well rename this class defense against magic. If I put you under the imperious curse, which gives me total control over you, and I have you kill someone, that's dark magic, but is it dark magic if I use the same spell to stop you from killing someone? So I figure I will teach you how to defend yourselves from curses, spells, hexes, charms, and maybe even a little bit of potions. However, being first years, we probably won't learn that much. Today we'll start with a very simple spell that tosses whatever it is that you shoot it at away from you…" the woman continued.

Hermione became sucked into the lesson, and was thrilled when she was the first person to be able to successfully complete the spell. She shot her quill across the room, and it bounced harmlessly of the chalk board. Her glee was stopped short when her ink jar was launched across the room as well, but it did a lot more damage than the quill did. The entire front of the classroom was showered in the black liquid, and the teacher became rather upset. Hermione turned to see who was laughing at her, and saw that it was the boys from Slytherin. She guessed that it had to be the blond haired one who had done it. A smirk of success graced his lips. She saw movement behind him, and opened her eyes in surprise. A bottle of Williard's Permanent Magical Ink was floating above the boy's head. It was moving around, as if the person doing the spell didn't have much experience with it. She glanced around the room, and saw that it was Harry. He was staring at the bottle, and his wand was pointed in that direction. She turned just in time to see the jar tip over, and the ink land all over the boy's head. His blond hair turned a very streaky black, as a few locks avoided contact with the liquid. She gasped in surprise, and the professor turned around just in time to find Malfoy sputtering in rage and screaming in frustration while he relentlessly tried to remove the irremovable ink.

Hermione had a sudden pang of guilt. She had no idea where it came from. Harry had just taken action against the snotty little Slytherin on her behalf, whether requested or not, she felt slightly indebted to him despite the fact she was upset at his late night absence from the castle. She turned back to her desk smirking as the professor yelled at Malfoy. Hermione stole a glance at Harry who was reclining and enjoying the excitement at Malfoy's desk. The professor obviously didn't believe that Malfoy wasn't responsible for it.

Shortly afterwards the class ended they dispersed to drop off their books before going to dinner. Hermione watched as Harry sleepily wandered the halls. He looked like a lost puppy just following the flow. She swallowed her pain and walked up beside him.

"You look like you're going to fall asleep before we get to Gryffindor Tower," she said. He looked at her and then resumed his walking in silence. She walked with him, trying to think of something fitting to say, but no words came. They had fallen behind the rest of the students, and the staircase they were on was shifting beneath them. When they finished the stairs Hermione had no idea where they were. It was a short corridor with a few doors but it was dark and looked spookier than the rest of the castle. Harry, after a moment's hesitation, walked forward at the same pace he had been traveling the entire time; sluggish. Hermione, torn between waiting for the staircase to come back and following Harry, chose to accompany the boy. She jogged up next to him, and turned sharply when he went up to a knight's armor. Harry said something, and the knight silently turned to the side as if it was on hinges. It revealed a narrow passage which Harry entered and Hermione slipped in just as the knight slid back into place.

The tunnel was dark and she walked along with her fingers sliding along the wall. She couldn't see and rushed forward to try to catch up to Harry. She walked into him, and he grunted. She apologized and placed her other hand on his back so it wouldn't happen again.

The passage weaved slightly and a few times they came upon stairs. Harry would stumble in front of her and she would know where to be wary. In a few short minutes they popped out a wall behind a nook created by one of the stone pillars in a corridor. Hermione recognized it as the corridor in which the portrait of the Fat Lady hung. She smiled in her realization, and jogged to catch up to Harry. He was at the Fat Lady and for the last few days had already opened the portrait. He stepped in and held the door as she caught up. He ignored her and started toward the boys' dormitories. He stopped suddenly and turned around.

"Don't wait for me to go down to dinner. I'm not going tonight," he said. He didn't give her a chance to respond, and immediately started up the stairs to his dormitory. Hermione sighed and went up to drop off her books. She had no idea who she was going to sit with.

/\/ /\/ /\/ /\/ /\/ /\/ /\/ /\/

            The next weeks passed with little occurrence. The Weasley twins had stolen a toilet seat and displayed it on the mantle under the portrait of Godric Gryffindor. To everyone's amazement, the next morning there was a complete, intact, working toilet in front of the fireplace. The Weasley's were as stunned as was the rest of Gryffindor tower. That was until they received a sympathetic pat on the back from a certain first year. The twins, who never argued, started blaming the other for not thinking of it first. It startled everyone and Ronald seemed mortified by the event. The twins never fought. Ever. And that twerp made them fight. It wasn't possible, it wasn't natural.

            Harry and Hermione seemed to just forget the incident of mistrust and moved on quickly. Harry didn't feel that he'd wronged her, and she felt he felt strongly enough not to tell her, so I was important enough for her not to know. However, secretly, she had taken to spying on him. She charmed his hair so that she heard everything he said and heard. Of course that meant that she had to be listening to her wand. Whatever happened wasn't recorded so she just had to listen. She did learn that he mumbled in his sleep. She wondered if people told him strange things in his sleep, because she thought she kept hearing him say "Are you serious?" One thing was puzzling her about her spying. The spell was supposed to last up to four months, and for some unknown reason, it kept dying after a day or two. If he was taking it off himself he would have confronted her. But for some reason it was not working right. She looked into it, pouring over all the books she could find, but the only explanation she could think of was that someone was interfering with her investigation. She forgot these thoughts as the first years arrived at the portrait of the fat lady. They were dropping off their books before dinner.

            Hermione saw Harry whispering quietly with Seamus, probably about some prank or another. Hermione watched them leave the common room heading down towards the Great Hall. She pulled her wand up to her ear.

            "Is it possible?" Seamus' voice said.

            "Absolutely. All we need is some weuphless skerjy powder and quetil fangs. We can order them from any apothecary. They would be more then happy to ship to Hogwarts to aid in the education (fake cough) of the students," Harry's voice whispered.

            "I suppose, it's just that, this could be dangerous," Seamus said.

            "As long as we get the ediket wings, all permanent side effects will be obsolete," Harry said.

            "But we don't know how much to use," Seamus countered.

            "I have a rough estimate," Harry said thoughtfully.

            "And how did you come to it?" asked Seamus.

            "I tested on Weasley's rat. Four wings to a liter of potion kills the effects in one hour. Three wings to a liter kills the effects in six hours. Two wings to a liter kills the effects in about two days…" Harry explained.

            "So you want to go with three and a half wings?" asked Seamus.

            "I was thinking more along the lines of two and a half," Harry said.

            "But that's going to keep it alive for…for…for…like an entire day. Twenty four hours!!!" Seamus cried despite whispering.

            "Precisely, six hours is no fun, it gives no chance for anything cool to happen," Harry responded.

            "But…all I have to say is that if any offspring come from this, I'm blaming you," Seamus said.

            "Agreed. Now, lets go over the schemat-"

            "Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!" Hermione screamed as a very loud screech entered her eardrum. She tripped over her own feet and fell onto the arm of the sofa. She got a few weird looks from her housemates. She smiled weakly at them and returned to her feet.

            So someone, whoever it was, had just killed her spell. This made her very angry, but her rumbling stomach told her it would have to wait. Dinner came first.

            As she exited the common room, to start her trek to the great hall, she was simmering. She was angry, and for a good reason. Who had the right to take off her spell? Ok, so maybe she shouldn't have cast it in the first place, but still… She was so involved with her own thoughts that she didn't hear his voice until the fifth time he called her name.

            "Yes?" she asked meekly, ashamed to have been so ignorant.

            "Ms. Granger, I realize you are very hungry, and that you are deep in thought, but I was hoping I could have a word with you for a minute. The classroom right here should do." The old man said. She hesitated at the request of her headmaster but gave in and followed him into the room. He sat at a desk and looked very foolish, but she sat next to him anyway, hoping that this wasn't going to take long. She had to find the person who was killing her spells.

            "Ms. Granger, I understand that you care for the safety of Mr. Mutton, as does the entire staff of this school. However, I can assure you his safety and the safety of all the students is more complete than you know. There are a tremendous number of wards and protective spells around this institution, and more are not needed. Indeed some are not wanted. Do you understand me Ms. Granger?" Dumbledore said.

            "Um, not clearly," she said honestly.

            "I am asking you to stop the investigation of Mr. Mutton. Your spells, although advanced and well practiced are better than some third years I have seen, but I must ask you to stop," the old man clarified. She looked down and felt her cheeks turning red, her mind racing to find something to say. Her head jolted up.

            "You know, don't you," she said excitedly. The man looked amused.

            "I know many things, Ms. Granger," he responded.

            "You know why he spent the night outside, don't you," she stated, her confidence coming back. She saw the old man look at her thoughtfully.

            "Yes, I do know why he spent the night out of the castle, however I am still unaware of the actual actions taken during that period of his absence from the castle. I was assured Harry was in safe hands when he returned early the next morning, and I did not need to report or investigate the incident. However, if you want to record my statement, I will tell you that I know Mr. Mutton was getting ahead in his astronomy work. Do you understand me? What happened out there is not for you or me to know. Please allow Mr. Mutton this small privacy. I assure you that it will not last for him, so I would like him to enjoy what he has left of it. It is time for us both to go to dinner. I expect you'll behave Ms. Granger?" She nodded. "Very well. The food will not wait for long," Dumbledore said. Hermione hesitated, trying to think of a way of extracting what he knew, but she knew it was useless, and silently followed him from the room.

Sorry this took so long. My beta had it for about a week and a half, and I was slow righting it, and yada, yada, yada. I hope you like it. Thank you everyone who reviewed, and I thank you ahead of time for those who will review this chapter. Happy reading.

BTW, I will be updating my other story in a couple days as well, so my beta tells me, when she'll send it back.