The bushy haired head of Hermione Granger could be seen pacing back and forth in front of what looked to be a vacant wall on the seventh floor. To most of the students it was but since fifth year Hermione knew better as did the rest of the DA. This wall was the key to entering the room of requirement and she was here because she required it's use. There was a lot going on this year and it was only the end of the first week and she needed to get some answers from her boys and especially from Harry.

Given the pact they had made on the train the Gryffindor witch thought the room of requirement would be the safest choice in the castle to speak of things which they didn't want getting back to the Headmaster. It was a long shot but it was a shot either way and she was sure Harry would agree. Hermione marched three times back and forth in front of the wall thinking about how they needed a place the headmaster couldn't spy on them in and after her third pass an elaborately designed door appeared. She glanced around to make sure no one was around and entered hoping both Ron and Harry would follow the directions she had noted in her notes to them.

The room she entered to looked a lot like the Gryffindor common room minus all the reds and golds. It was comfortable looking and not overly large. There was a fireplace that was lit and a few comfortable looking armchairs and also a small tea table that appeared to be set with tea. "Nice touch." Hermione said to the room that seemed to glow with warmth and she walked over to the nearest chair and settled in trying not to think how this could all go so very wrong.

Harry wasn't sure when things between he, Ron, and Hermione had degenerated into them only being able to all get together when someone sent instructions. It had been him first, and now Hermione had followed suit early in school. If this was what growing up and becoming an adult who was responsible for his actions meant, Harry wasn't sure he liked it.

Still, he hadn't seen much at all of his two constant companions, classes only really. He was extremely busy with entirely too much, and it seemed like they might be in the same place. At least, that was what Harry hoped. If he was accidentally ignoring them while they spent a lot of time looking for him and wondering what he was up to, he would feel terrible.

He made his way to the Room of Requirement, hoping that he was worrying for nothing and that everything would be back to normal soon. He approached the door, which could only have been conjured by Hermione, and smiled as he let himself in.

He glanced around and found more touches of the witch he considered a sister. "Nice place you've got going," he said with a grin, grabbing a cup of tea and taking a seat. Ron didn't seem to be hear yet, so he appeared to have time to wait. Hopefully he was still in a decent enough mood with Harry to show up.

"Being summoned like some bloody house elf again. I might as well go join Dobby.." The tall form of Ron Weasley could be heard muttering darkly as he paced in front of the wall on the seventh floor. So far since coming back to school he had only really seen his two best friends at meal times and in classes and those meetings didn't leave room for what they actually needed to discuss. Things had never been so complicated between the three of them and it gave Ron a headache. He had meant what he said on the train and would follow Harry to the end of wherever. He just wished one of his friends or even his sister could understand how he felt for once.

Ginny had made it clear a long time ago that she favored the twins over Ron any day of the week and it was no secret that his own parents often forgot about him. At school he was constantly overshadowed by Harry and Hermione both so was it a stretch that he was frustrated most of the time? This year it was worse because this year followed the first summer there was zero contact between Harry and him and not to mention the stupid rumors circulating about Ron's sister.

The door appeared and Ron wanted to continue his anger but knew better. He knew he could be an idiot most of the time but he had learned his lesson in this. He would give his friends the benefit of the doubt. They had been together for too long for him not to and more often than not if Harry and Hermione avoided him it was usually for a reason. Whether it was a good reason or not was an entirely different story since they all had different definitions of what constituted a good reason. "Bloody hell." He muttered and pushed open the door and entered the room. No wonder they left the thinking to Hermione most of the time. It bloody hurt.

The room was like a reflection of his bushy haired friend herself and he couldn't help the smile he gave at its warmth. Trust Hermione to find a way to them in a good mood before one word was even spoken. He closed the door and spotted his two friends. "Hey mate. Hermione." He greeted each with a nod and then because someone had to break the ice, "If you two keep sending me summons I'm going to go work with Dobby in the kitchens." He knew he might pay for this comment because of Hermione and her spew stuff but he hoped it would get a laugh out of Harry.

An instant smile grew on her face when Harry entered the room the castle had created for them. "I'm glad you like it Harry." She was happy see the smile on her friend's face because they had been so few since Sirius. Hermione didn't get an opportunity to say much else because Ron arrived and she glared at him. "That's not funny Ron. It's absolutely terrible how the house elves are treated and you shouldn't treat it as a joke."

Scolding the two boys usually came second nature to Hermione and it was usually Ron who ended up needing it. Harry was the smart one who tried to give the sheepish looks and ended up looking far too adorable to be angry with. "And arranging the meeting was the only way I could make sure to have you both in the same place at the same time." The Gryffindor witch leveled them both with a glare showing that she was not happy about having to go through such drastic measures. "And I want to finish what we started on the train and now there's a whole lot of new issues popping up all over the place like this Riddle girl and some long lost daughter of Sirius'."

Harry grinned at Ron's joke, but was careful not to let Hermione see. "It may go like that this year for important stuff, mate" he said with an apologetic shrug. "It's not like we can talk about anything important out in the open, not the way our list of allies has shifted this year." Harry hoped that the two of them understood that he still loved them as a brother and a sister and that nothing had changed between them. It was only everything else that had changed.

He looked at Hermione with a bit of shock on his face. He knew that she had met Felicity, but had no idea why Hermione's voice was full of distaste, and had no idea that she had even met Skyler. That could be a problem. He would have to try and defuse it before Ron figured out this was a Slytherin that was alright. That could ruin everything else, at least for awhile. "You mean Skyler and Felicity?" he asked, going for casual. "They both seem alright to me.

"I still need to tell you about the end of term and the rest of my summer," he said, plowing ahead quickly in hopes that they would let the girls Hermione clearly wanted to talk about go for now in favor of juicier and surer news. "Dumbledore had a memory of the prophecy that smashed while we were fighting Death Eaters," he said gravely. "If it is really what the prophecy said, and it's a real prophecy, like the one about Wormtail, we should be really worried." Harry doubted both halves of this statement, but had no idea to test it. Hopefully Hermione would focus on this problem and would have some kind of idea.

"Alright Hermion, alright. Merlin, a bloke can't even make a joke anymore.." He muttered and dropped like dead weight into the empty chair waiting for him. Ron considered ratting out Harry for finding his joke funny but he figured his friend could use a break from being told what to do and he had hoped Harry would find it funny. He merely shrugged his shoulders about the summons because he didn't really mind as long as they were all still getting along and on the same page.

Of course Ron wasn't on the same page because he was sure he hadn't heard anything about Siruis' daughter before. Unfortunately for the other two Hermione decided to lay that on him just as he took a drink of tea and in his shock he sprayed them with it and his blue eyes widened until the looked like saucers and his mouth opened in closed several times making him look like a fish. His eyes moved from one to the other as Harry plowed on and Ron's eyes went as wide as possible. "What the bloody hell?" The red head didn't know what else to say and he swallowed remembering to breath and shook his head. "Well. Suppose we should figure out the dangerous stuff first eh Harry?"

Hermione scowled at Ron after raising her arms to shield her face from his shower of tea. "Ugh! Ron that is disgusting!" It really was gross the way he was always either spitting food or drink all over them and he never apologized for it. At least he never gave an apology that he actually meant. She looked at Harry helplessly when Ron once again didn't apologize but say there gaping like he were brain dead.

The bushy haired Gryffindor witch rolled her eyes in irritation and decided they should just get ok with it then because there no point in arguing over spilt tea and they really did need to have this conversation. She still sent a glare Harry's way though. "Don't think I don't realize your change of subject Harry Potter and believe me we will come back to those two girls. 'They seem alright', honestly.." Hermione trailed off mutterin to herself and shaking her head.

How anyone could think those two girl were anywhere near alright was beside her and she had heard Parvati and Lavender last night in the dormitory talking about how the Riddle girl was dating Malfoy. Of that wasn't a clear sign that she was bad news Hermione didn't know what was and she was sure Harry would change his opinion after hearing that. The Hufflepuff girl was a different story altogether and she would just handle that with care when they came back to it.

"For now I agree, and I can't believe I am saying this, but I agree with Ron. Let's start with the prophecy. Did Dumbledore show it to you? Or at least tell you what it said?" Hermione fired out questions in typical Hermione fashion like she was back in class and learning of something she couldn't wait to wrap her mind around.

Harry chose to ignore Hermione entirely when she mentioned coming back to the other stuff. He didn’t see how the two girls were in any way relevant to the things going on right now. Sure, Skyler’s last name was creepy, but Voldemort didn’t have any family. She was just an American kid with an unfortunate last name. She was fun to be around and couldn’t be mixed up in all of this. As for Felicity, as long as she didn’t tell a ton of people who she was, the worst that could happen would be people assuming Harry was dating her from the time she spent together, and he had heard worse rumors about himself.

Anyway, they all agreed that the business of Dumbledore and the prophecy was what really needed dealt with. “I mean, he showed me a lot and told me a lot,” Harry said slowly and thoughtfully. “The thing is, he showed me all of this the night that Sirius died, so I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly at the time.”

That was the part that really worried him. How could he trust anything that had happened that night? Who could he turn to so that he could check and make sure that it was all legit? He had no idea where to turn, and the people that came to mind might be taking Padfoot’s death just as hard as he was. Hopefully Ron would have some kind of normal magical solution that the other two didn’t know about, or Hermione would have read something somewhere that could help them.

He sighed. Holding off telling them wouldn’t make an answer any more likely. “He showed me his memory of the prophecy. Trelawney made it to him when she interviewed to teach Divination, must have been the summer that I was born, but before I was actually born. It said a child was going to be born that would be the only one to stop Voldemort. Dumbledore told me that originally it said either me or Neville could be the one based on our birthdays, but Voldemort had a spy who heard half, and when Voldemort attacked my parents and me it meant the prophecy could only be about me.”

He heaved another great sigh, really not wanting to talk about this anymore, even with his two best friends, but at the same time they really needed to know. Even if the two in here wouldn’t believe it so far this year, there was no one he trusted more with decisions and heavy stuff like this.

“Anyway, the main point of the prophecy was that either I have to kill Voldemort, or he has to kill me. Nobody else can be the one to finish him off. So I guess if this prophecy is real, we need to start worrying about keeping me alive, and about how I’m going to take out Voldemort, because he is not winning this war.”

He sighed one more time and deflated a little. “I really hope the prophecy is one of Dumbledore’s tricks to manipulate me. He spent the rest of the time talking about how special I am and how much he loves me and recounting all of the adventures the three of us have had. It wasn’t exactly the proper way to handle a death in the family.” With that Harry went silent and a little bit stony faced. He simply couldn’t say anything else without breaking down in tears.

In his attempt to keep the tea in his mouth this time Ron choked on it and coughing he set the tea cup down. It seemed too dangerous to try and drink it at this time. He had been startled to hear all of this went down the night Sirius died. Harry had kept it to himself for that long? The immature part of Ron wanted to be angry that he would keep something this big from them for so long. There were supposed to be best friends weren't they? Another part of him, the part he chose to listen to for maybe the third time in his life told him that some things took time to sink in and weren't easily discussed and this was one of those things.

The shocks kept coming for him and he was glad he had given up on the tea. Trelawney, Neville..they both made an appearance in the story. The red head had to cough to cover up a snort. He liked Neville, he really did. But he wasn't exactly built for this kind of stuff but even Ron had to admit Neville had come a long way from first year. But nothing could have prepare Ron for the final blow.

He ended up looking like a cartoon character with his eyes as big as they could get and his face deathly pale as he stared at his best mate in disbelief his mouth opening closing as if he wanted to say something but no sound came from it. To him it was like the final nail had been pounded into Harry's coffin and that was something he couldn't let happen. The red head knew he hadn't always been the best friend he could have been to his friends but now was his shot to prove he could be and that he grew up. He had to let to of the jealousies and anger he had held against his friend completely in order to help Harry through this. He wasn't going to make the mistake he had in fourth year again and turn his back on his best mate.

"Well if that's all.." He said with a forced laugh that held no real humor to it as he tried to break the tension again. This was something he could always be counted on. Hermione was obviously the brains and Harry the brawn of their trio and he was the court jester. "Shouldn't be too different from last year...or the year before...or the year before that..." In spite of the obvious threat on his friend's life and what would mean a threat on his as well and pretty much anyone connected to Harry a half smile made itself known showing that Ron stood firmly on Harry's side. Harry was like his brother and blood couldn't have that any truer.

"It's hard to believe Dumbledore thought after.." He paused unsure about mentioning Sirius right then. Harry's mood swings had been death last year and he wasn't too sure about them this year. "Erm..after the ministry would be the best time to tell you all this. No wonder you blew up his office." His smile turned into a full one and he snorted and he knew it was probably not the time but Merlin it was typical of Harry and at least he hadn't blown up Dumbledore like he had his aunt. "So keeping you safe. That shouldn't be so hard right? I mean, me and Hermione have only been doing it since first year. We're practically experts." He tried to find a bright side to all this but thinking on their previous years and how more often than not they only ended up more in harms way he frowned. "Then again, maybe we are doomed mate." His tone at the last bit was so seriously grave it was comical.

Hermione listened to Harry explain what went on after the Ministry fiasco caught between shock, horror, concern, and anger. Shock that Harry had dealt with all of this on his own since then, not speaking of it to anyone. Horror at what had been placed on his shoulders. Concern about her friend because Harry was more a brother to her than anything else and he had been through enough without this added to it. And anger at Dumbledore. It wasn't just anger. It was a red rage, a fury she wished to release on the old wizard who had done this to Harry. Nothing could have tipped her so completely against the headmaster than the words Harry spoke. How could anyone claim to care about someone else and do that to them?

The bushy haired Gryffindor felt tears welling up in her chocolate brown eyes as she watched Harry, her hand over her mouth. In a way, Hermione felt they should have realized something like this all along. Maybe not the prophesy part, but why else would Voldemort be so set on killing Harry if he didn't view him as a threat in some way? Her mind was reeling from the information Harry supplied. She couldn't even be properly annoyed with Ron except to send him an irritated glare. He was so insensitive sometimes, but then maybe they all needed something to take the edge off.

"Oh Harry.." Hermione started, but didn't know how to continue or finish so she launched herself at him and embraced him in a startling hug, tears streaming from her eyes. It wasn't very often Hermione was emotional but her heart was very heavy after listening to him and imagining how he must have felt all this summer with only this to think about and occupy his time. Suddenly it all made sense. "This was why you avoided us all summer." She pulled back from him to glare halfheartedly at her friend. "I understand now, I think. But if you ever do it again so help me Harry James Potter I will hex you into oblivion."

She returned to her own seat and sighed heavily hands on her knees. "So we need to figure out if this is true or not. But it would be hard to do so without the memory of the prophecy." Her mind automatically focused on the few things in this situation they could control, and the few things she could do to help Harry because she was so obviously and fully on his side. Something was bothering her about all of this though. "What reason would Dumbledore have for making up a false prophesy about you and Voldemort though? Unless.." The Gryffindor witch shook her head. No. That idea was too crazy and too horrible to even think much less speak aloud.

Harry shot Ron a grateful smile. Though the actual jokes didn’t do much to lighten his mood, the fact that the redhead was willing to keep making them, even at a time like this, did lighten Harry’s mood a lot. They were best mates for a reason.

Harry was almost ready for Hermione to hit him in the big hug before she hit him. His almost sister’s reaction was just as normal and expected as Ron’s had been. She tended to live with her emotions on her sleeve while Ron hid his behind humor. Harry locked his deep inside, which was probably the least healthy of the three methods, but not something that was easy to change. More and more Harry wondered if it was even a good idea to change it, or if it was good that he naturally played things close to the vest, especially if soon his enemy list would feature possibly the most brilliant wizard ever to exist when it already included the deadliest.

“Hermione, I need to breathe,” Harry said with a smile, then waited for her to move far enough away from him that he could take a few deep breaths and then slowly speaking in a not all that positive tone.

“Well, I don’t much fancy trying to get a memory out of either Dumbledore’s head or the Pensive that’s locked in his office unless there is a really good reason for it to be somewhere else.” His glance shifted to Ron, not that it would do any real good. “You’re the best strategist out of us. Any idea how to trick the smartest and most cunning man alive into letting us study a memory that he’s already shown me once and probably hates looking at?”

His eyes snapped back to Hermione. “Unless what?” he questioned, rather quickly and thus more harshly than he had intended. He took a calming breath and tried again. “I mean, do you have some idea how to fix or at least understand the mess we’re in?”

The red head watched his best friends interaction and pondered the fact that he had almost given them both up because of jealousy. Staying friends was one call he was sure he would not regret and he rubbed the back of his neck looking thoughtful and serious for once and pondered Harry's question. Ron was now over the initial shock of hearing what Harry had said and now was the time to think of a plan of action.

"If we are going to go against Dumbledore, which is mad, even for us, then it's best we keep it all low key. He can't suspect anything, so it's best you try and get along mate." He gave Harry a wry grin. "If Hermione can tell you what to look for though I think if you ask him to see the memory again he would let you if he thinks you're still under his thumb." This was all logical to the red head and as simple as it sounded it was probably their best bet. Switching his gaze to Hermione he too looked interested to know what she wasn't saying.

The bushy haired Gryffindor witch bit her bottom lip worrying it and she nodded at Ron's theory because it sounded logical. As brilliant as the Headmaster was she was sure he would not expect anything so simple from the them. He would likely not suspect anything if they gave the appearance of going along with him as they had always done while working on the back end to disrupt any plans he had or find out just what his plans were.

She still had her reservations about all of this and part of Hermione hoped that the Headmaster wasn't as bad as he now seemed to be but a greater part of her worried that his greatest transgressions in regards to Harry had yet to be revealed and this left her with a great sorrow filling her heart as if a hand had wrapped around it and was squeezing and it also made her already mile wide protective streak that much wider. It was hard enough trying to keep her pair of boys out of trouble on a normal day and this would have her doubling her efforts.

Hermione looked from Harry to Ron with an uneasy look on her face and it was like she didn't want to explain what she was thinking and even less why she thought it but she really had no choice now. "Unless he knew one of Voldemort's lackeys would be there to hear." It was a small voice she ended in but she knew the two boys would hear her and understand what she was saying and where she was going with this. If that were the case then it would stand that for some reason Dumbledore had wanted Voldemort to target Harry, and was ultimately responsible for his parent's deaths.

"He did mention a spy, I think, getting thrown out halfway through!" he shouted, with something that warped from triumph almost to terror halfway through. This was all too much. Entirely too much. Harry couldn't even focus on what Ron had said, because Hermione's last statement had temporarily blocked everything else from his mind.

He slid out of his chair and began pacing, hoping to ease his nerves and he figured things out. "But if Dumbledore knew the spy was there the whole time, not just when he was thrown out, that means that he wanted Voldemort to hear the first half of the prophecy, just not the whole thing." He stopped talking but kept pacing, trying to remember exactly what the prophecy had said and in what order.

It hit him like a ton of bricks. "But if that's true, he wanted Voldemort to come after me. The first half says Voldemort needs to kill the child in the prophecy, but not that I might be dangerous to him in some way." His breathing became heavy, but he continued to pace, basically indifferent to the physical world. "It would mean he actually wanted Voldemort to take out my parents. Maybe he thought I would actually kill Voldemort and it was a fair trade."

All of a sudden, Harry came to a complete stop and looked intensely at his two friends. A decision had been made. "We need to figure out who made that prophecy, and who heard the first half besides Albus Dumbledore."

"And the yelling returns.." Ron muttered rubbing his ears and looking at his hands as if checking for blood. Harry's yelling was steadily reaching to a level that was on par with the red head's mum and that was saying something. Wisely though he decided against stating this out loud for fear either Harry or Hermione would curse his arse into next year and remained silent through all of his best mate' spacing and talking. Ron had learned long ago it was best to let Harry get things straight in his mind before jumping in with any ideas he had of his own. In case he ever had his own ideas that was.

He held his hands up in a surrender like way recognizing the look on his friends face. It was that set determined look Harry got whenever he had made a choice and Ron knew once Harry decided on something he went all for it. There would be no stopping him. "Alright mate. Merlin." He shook his red head sending a glare Hermione's way for bringing this up in the first place before returning his blue gaze to Harry. "But who would know who had heard it aside from Dumbledore, You-Know-Who, and whatever death eater overheard it?" It was like a wild goose chase in Ron's mind. They couldn't ask Dumbledore for obvious reasons and for even more obvious reasons they couldn't ask You-Know-Who. That would be a lovely conversation. 'Excuse me Snakeface, but before you kill me will you tell me which of your demented followers overheard the prophesy and let me owl it to my friends?' Somehow that didn't sound like it would go over too well.

There were maybe a handful of times when Hermione could say she feared Harry and this was one of those times. It was not so much that she thought her friend, who was more like a brother, would ever harm her on purpose but Harry was notoriously known for losing control when he was angry and things tended to happen to people when he did.

The bushy haired Gryffindor witch worried her bottom lip between her teeth looking from one boy to the other and settled her gaze on her pacing friend and listening as he drew the same conclusions she had. Hermione desperately hoped Harry did not blame her for bringing this up and putting the thought in his head. She wanted to protect Harry from harm and would have kept it to herself if she had thought that was best but Harry hated when people kept things from him especially when they were about him.

The bushy haired witch continued to chew on her bottom lip not able to meet her friend's eyes yet and racked her brain for any ideas on how they could find out that information because Ron was right. They could not ask Dumbledore or Voldemort. Then it was like a lightbulb went off in her head. "What if we ask someone who is close to both of them?"

Harry groaned. His best friends were right, of course. There was no way to go up and ask Dumbledore or Voldemort who heard the prophecy and what their overall plans for it. Voldemort would kill him on sight, and even if that weren’t true for some reason, he knew less about the prophecy than Harry did realistically. That left Dumbledore, and if this conversation told them anything at all it was that if there was anything to worry about in all of this, Dumbledore would lie to them so effectively that they wouldn’t have a clue. He was out.

Harry went back to his chair and sank down into it. He knew what Ron was driving towards, and he knew what Hermione was actively suggesting, but that didn’t mean he liked it. “There’s no way we can track down whoever made the prophecy and ask them if they know what happened is there?” His defeated tone would have let Hermione at least know that Harry knew this wasn’t an option. The seer would have been in a trance, and there was almost no chance that Dumbledore had filled them in afterwards. Maybe someone else in the Hog’s Head had gossiped, but it was a long shot, even if they could somehow figure out the seer from their initials, assuming Hermione or Neville or someone even remembered the initials, because Harry certainly didn’t.

“I’ll have to be the one to talk to Snape,” he said, voice just as depressed at the thought as it had been on his last statement. He couldn’t remember a single conversation with Snape he had come out ahead from, and there certainly wasn’t a single one-on-one meeting with the man that he had enjoyed. Still, it was the only way and he needed to make sure his friends knew it, because otherwise they would want to go with him, and based on recent evidence, if he tried to talk to the new DADA professor by himself without telling them first, they would find out quickly and get offended.

“He’d never trust that either of you weren’t up to something. But I think he knows that even if we were up to something, I wouldn’t be the one to go, especially after- after” he was trying to say after Sirius, but it just wouldn’t come out. Harry tried to hide the pain from his face so his friends wouldn’t worry about him as he finished. “So I think he’ll know I’m both serious and desperate. I’ll come and fine you guys straight after and we can go over what he said together and figure out what to do next.”

Gaping the only red head in the room looked from one best friend to the other with a look that was half stunned and half confused. Ron wasn't so thick that he couldn't keep up with what the other two were saying and implying but his confusion came from why it was suddenly necessary to put themselves in direct contact with Snape of all people.

Ron's natural reaction was to explode like the hot head he normally was but past experiences had taught him some semblance of self control and instead he took a few breaths stretching in his chair and thinking things through for once. Even given the circumstances Ron felt more relieved than he had in a long time now that he had made the decision to stand with his best mate once and for all and it was like a huge weight had been lifted from him.

The red head shrugged at his friends' plan. "Better you than me mate." He told Harry with a nod of his head. Even Ron could see this was the best plan they had but the grimace on his face gave away the fact that he did not like it all that much. Seeing Harry's struggle with saying or referring to Sirius was eye opening for Ron and he averted his eyes to give his best mate a few moments. "Whatever you want to do mate, we're with you. Even if it means having to talk with the greasy git." He gave his friend a grin trying to lighten the mood and take some of the edge off. It was beginning to become clearer that they were all growing up and that like so many times before their survival might just depend on each other.

The disappointment and depression in her best friend's voice struck right down to her heart and Hermione wanted to throw her arms around Harry again in some kind of attempt to console him or make him feel not so depressed and alone. She wanted to say something about Sirius and about how it hit them all hard to lose him and that Sirius had meant a lot to them all but she knew this would only serve to anger him most likely because no matter how much Sirius meant to her or Ron or anyone else it could never compare to how much the man had meant to Harry and nobody could understand how much it hurt him.

The bushy haired Gryffindor witch looked at her friend not with pity but with concern. Harry was still grieving which wasn't entirely surprising but was worrisome considering what his next course of action would be. Snape was not one who would be at all sympathetic towards the loss of Sirius and the feud between the professor and her friend was at an all time high which left Hermione thinking that someone ought to be there in case things went awry as they so often did when concerning the two in question.

But Harry spoke his decision with a conviction that Hermione knew meant he would not waver in it and she found herself again biting on her lower lip and her brows drew together in thought. Part of her was unsure whether to voice her opinion with things still quite shaky between them all because she didn't want Harry to think she were questioning him. It was sort of an unspoken consensus between the three of them that Harry were the leader of their group and always had been and with things just getting back to a somewhat normal place between them all she didn't want to upset the brunette, but her concern for him won out.

"I think you should take someone with you Harry." Hermione focused her chocolate brown eyes on her friend's emerald green ones with concern and pleading in them. "I just think it would be a good idea for you to have morale support when it concerns Snape." It was not lost on her that she said someone instead of either herself or Ron. Hermione cared very little at this point where Harry got his consolation and support from as long as he did get it and she knew he knew that she supported him no matter what.

Harry had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes at Ron's latest comment. He was sure Hermione would do so for him anyway, but his best mate could be so dense sometimes. It was like the redhead had never figured out where the line was that divided joke time from serious work time. Anything that included seeing Snape for any reason certainly fell under the work category.

Still, he turned his attention to Hermione, because he didn't want a shouting match with his mate. Especially not when things seemed to actually be going well right now. She was not letting up on him always having someone at his side, which would probably get annoying very soon, but at least she seemed aware that neither of the two people in the room would be the best choices for the meeting that needed to happen. They were making progress of a sort.

That wasn't fair. This whole meeting had been far better than Harry had anticipated, almost like old times. He flashed a smile at both of them before he spoke. "I guess I can find someone that speaks Snape and will work as interpreter," he jabbed, something close to his usual grin coming back into place. "And like I said, I'll fill you two in immediately after so that we can decide what to do next. Same with any relevant information that Dumbledore gives me, as he continues to insist on meeting weekly."

With that he stood up again, ready to be out of here and in the fresh air. Eventually Harry would have to wonder about why he kept fleeing the castle this year. For now he gave Hermione a quick hug, Ron a manly nod, and turned to go, hoping that his friends would let him and would not call him immediately back.