Harry Potter The Final Straw

Dobby blushed and gave Harry a final push into the stall before closing the door. While he was waiting for his master to change, he busied himself with tidying up the rest of the bathroom.

Winky was helping her normally talkative mistress into fresh clothes with an increasing amount of worry. Something must have happened to cause such a drastic change in her behavior. Tentatively, she asked, "Miss, do you need anything or do you want me to give a message to your parents?"

Hermione had been on autopilot as Winky helped her with her robes and it took her a couple of seconds to process the question before she could answer, "Yes, would you tell my parents what happened, I don't think that I'm ready for that yet."

"Of course, Miss." Winky said, hiding her concern. "Do you need me for anything else?" When Hermione nodded, no, Winky said, "Just call when you are ready to return home, Miss." After a small bow, she popped off to the kitchens to get some answers about why her mistress was unhappy.

Harry had finished dressing while Hermione was still getting ready. After saying goodbye to Dobby, he headed down to the Common Room to wait for her to come down.

When Harry stepped into the Common Room, Fred and George were staring, open mouthed, at him. Confused, he asked, "What?"

"Blimey!" Fred cried in shock.

George looked just as stupefied before he found his voice and blurted, "How did you do that?"

Thoroughly confused, Harry asked, "Do what?"

Fred and George got up from their spots on the sofas and hurried over towards Harry. Urgently, Fred whispered, "First you silently conjure a set of stairs up to the girl's dormitories and then you come down the boys stairs when we know that you didn't come back down the steps to get to your dorm."

"So, spill it! How did you do that?" George asked with a tone of awe mixed with curiosity in his voice.

Harry ran his hand through his hair, messing it up even more than usual, before he answered with a smirk on his face, "Now that would be telling. Thanks for the note though."

Sensing Hermione's presence, he looked over towards the steps to the Girl's Dormitories and gave her a small smile. Keeping his eyes fixed on Hermione, he said to Fred and George, "Excuse me."

Fred and George watched in silence as Harry walked over to Hermione and pulled her into a hug that she heartily returned. They could see the pained expression on her face and deciding not to impose; they quietly slipped from the Common Room and headed down towards the Great Hall quietly discussing the very big puzzle that was Harry Potter.

After watching Fred and George leave, Harry quietly asked Hermione, "Are you hungry?"

Nodding yes to his question, Hermione leaned back a touch and looked into his compassion filled eyes. Giving him a small smile in return, she said, "Would you be terribly upset if we ate with my parents?"

Harry understood what she wanted and he was thankful that Hermione's parents were still around to provide a level of support that up until this year, he had been lacking and didn't believe existed. Squeezing her slightly to let her know he was okay with her request, he called out, "Dobby!"

When their faithful house-elf appeared with a pop and a smile, Harry asked him, "Would you please take us home?"

Seeing the tired look in their eyes, Dobby squeaked happily, "I would be delighted!" He reached out, grasped each of their hands, and vanished from Gryffindor Tower.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his usual high backed throne in the Great Hall as he surveyed the student's in front of him. The chatter was subdued, probably due to the day's events, but nothing that he hadn't expected. What did surprise him was that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were missing in addition to the injured students.

Carefully, he scanned the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables to make sure that he hadn't missed them sitting somewhere unusual. Sighing into his napkin as he wiped his mouth, Dumbledore realized that he had been letting too many things slip through his fingers for the past few weeks.

The biggest of those things were The-Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter, and the disappearances of Alastor Moody and Igor Karkaroff. He was sure that they were somehow connected and he silently vowed to find the underlying cause of this particular mystery.

Dumbledore had already set up a rotating schedule of guards to keep a watch on Harry this summer at his relative's house without the boy being aware. Having him guarded would solve a couple of potential problems. First, it would give him the ability to keep Harry isolated from the magical world for another summer, especially once he forbid everyone to contact him because the Owl Post was no longer secure. Secondly, when he allowed Harry to visit the Weasleys, or his godfather, later in the summer, it would help put him back in the boy's good graces.

Turning his thoughts back to his missing friend, Dumbledore's eyes tightened as he came to the realization that Alastor was probably dead already. His desire to keep the potential imposter close was a strategic gamble that had probably backfired. To make matters worse, he didn't know who had been impersonating Moody for the past ten months. Meaning, if it was a Death Eater, they were now running free. His regret over Moody was one of the few times that he prayed that he was wrong.

However, Dumbledore had no regrets about Igor Karkaroff. He knew that Igor was a dead man walking the instant the Voldemort was reborn. Karkaroff had betrayed his fellow Death Eaters in open court for a pardon. If Voldemort didn't kill him, then one of his Death Eaters would.

The house-elves were just sending dessert up to the house tables and the appearance of a multitude of sweets distracted him momentarily. He reached out and served himself a generous portion of pumpkin pie with a large dollop of cream on top. Sweets were one of Dumbledore's guilty pleasures. He had other vices, but none that brought him as much pleasure as a good sweet.

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