Unlikely Beginnings

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Chapter Thirty Two

Even if some people thought that Harry was a bad omen sometimes, he did
always turn around and protect them all from the danger he drew to himself.
Rumors were spreading around the school like wild fire, and people had
definitely noticed that Harry Potter had disappeared. It was an uneasy
feeling around the school, sitting in apprehensive classes full of tense
students. Ron and Hermione were dreading when the first person would come up
to them and ask where Harry was. The rest of the boys in Seventh Year barely
even had the nerve to ask Ron about his best friend. It seemed no one wanted
to ask yet, for fear of finding out something terrible that they might not
have wanted to know in the first place.

It was after their Charms class that Ron and Hermione were making their way
through the halls to Transfiguration when Neville caught up with them
through thowd.owd. Hermione automatically drew them to the side of the hall
so they weren\'t in the way, and waited for Neville to regain his breath; he
had jogged to catch up with them. He\'d lost weight since last year, but it
still was an effort to dodge around all those students. \"The Slytherins are
pretty pissed off their Seeker is missing,\" he said, leaning against the
wall. \"They\'d never forfeit a game, especially not after the last match, but
what are they going to do without a Seeker?\"

The two teens looked at Neville as he spoke, and at his words, Ron scoffed,
then snorted, almost at the same time, sounding both disgusted and amused.
\"They\'d say,\" Ron began, \"\'good riddance!\' Malfoy couldn\'t catch the snitch
for the life of him.\"

Ron crossed his arms and looked smug for a total of two seconds before,
\"Ron!\" Hermione admonished, smacking his shoulder. Ron didn\'t loory ry
ashamed of what he\'d said, but he averted his eyes. Hermione turned back to
Neville, who had been watching them curiously. \"Have they thought to find
out where he went?\"

Neville shook his head. \"No. The only teacher they really confide in is
Snape, and he\'s gone,\" he shrugged. \"Do you know why he went to Durmstrang,
too? I mean, Harry and Draco were following him, so that\'s why they\'d go
there if that\'s where he went; but why was he there to begin wit


Ron and Hermione glanced at each other. Should they tell Neville? They
didn\'t want the whole school knowing. They knew Neville would keep Harry and
Draco\'s \'relationship\' a secret, but if he knew exactly why Snape went to a
school renown for teaching the Dark Arts and probably being in league with
the Dark Lord himself, would he be able to keep that a secret? Then there
was the fact that Neville seemed to keep his and Blaise\'s relationship
quiet, but this was a whole lot more damaging than it would be for those two
if people knew. \"D \"Dumbledore wouldn\'t tell us much,\" Hermione finally said, deciding to
simply not mention what he had and hadn\'t told them. \"I mean,\" she
continued, \"he barely confirmed that\'s where Snape even went, so, I doubt he
would have just let slip any little detail.\"

Neville looked confused for a moment, but nodded. It seemed he liked being
in on what was going on. They\'d never really spent that much time with
Neville, but they all knew quite a bit about each other after seven years.
\"I\'ll see you guys outside,\" he finally said, and they watched as he walked
in the opposite direction of going outside. Their next class was Care of
Magical Creatures, and they were pretty sure that Neville was going to find
Blaise. It was either that, or else he was really, really lost, or had to
pee.

Shaking her head after Neville, Hermione and Ron turned and headed towards
the stairs. She knew it would have to be a pretty big something he\'d needed
to talk to Snape for if Harry was stupid enough to do what he did. They
needed to find out what that something was, but how could they do that?
\"This is about to explode, isn\'t it?\" Ron asked, interrupting her thoughts.
Hermione nodded as they made their way down the other set of stairs to the
main floor.

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Care of Magical Creatures went by without a lot of questions. Most students
were wary about being near one of Hagrid\'s newest finds. Hagrid had asked
them if they knew where Harry had gone, but they feigned ignorance and
Hagrid left it at that, nodding and mumbling to himself that he hoped Harry
hadn\'t gotten into something dangerous. Over the past seven years, y hay had
done a lot of things for Hogwarts besides various triumphs over minions of
Voldemort and the Dark Lord himself, so it wasn\'t that far fetched for
people to think that. Since Dumbledore hadn\'t held a teachers\' conference
about Harry, he assumed everything was fine and left it at that.

When their class was let out for the day, they headed straight for Professor
Lupin\'s office. They had wanted to speak with him, especially since they
weren\'t sure what to tell their house mates whenever one of them asked if
they knew where Harry was. They knocked on his office door, but there was no
answer. Trying the handle, they found it unlocked, so they entered the room
and decided to wait for him. They sat in the two seats across from Lupin\'s
desk, and Ron asked, \"You reckon he was able to get hold of Snape?\"

\"I don\'t know,\" Hermione said, sounding sad. She sniffled quietly, and it
made Ron feel a bit uncomfortable. Even after how manyrs wrs with Ginny, he
hadn\'t gotten used to a girl crying. What could he do? Pat her on the back
and say \'buck up\'? He barely even realized he\'d completely accepted her hand
in his own when she reached over, holding onto him tightly. After a few more
sniffles, it was quiet as they waited, but they didn\'t have to wait more
than five minutes before the door opened. They didn\'t let go even when Lupin
walked into the room, hand to his nose and a jar full of thorny looking
twigs.

\"Oh!\" he said, startled when he looked up to find the two waiting for him.
\"Hello,\" he tried a shaky smile before he set the jar down on a clear space
on the desk, which was otherwise filled with scrolls and old books, and a
few odd trinkets. Pulling a handkerchief from his pocket, he turned to the
side, but not enough, because when he took his hand from his nose, they saw
blood. \"P \"Professor Lupin,\" Hermione gasped. \"What happened?\" He seemed tense at her
question, and simply dabbed at his nose and sniffed experimentally before
turning back to them.

\"Oh, nothing, Hermione,\" he swallowed, dabbing at his nose again. \"Just a
little nose bleed.\" He folded the cloth quickly and stuffed it back in his
pocket, not letting them see how much had oozed from his nostril, which he\'d
cleaned the best he could without a mirror.

\"Why did it start?\" Ron asked, rubbing his thumb over Hermione\'s absently.
He frowned at the light red smear down to Lupin\'s upper lip. Lupin sighed,
pulling his chair back slowly and sitting down in it. He\'d just walked half
way around the castle, from the fourth floor where his office was located,
down to the ground floor and outside to the greenhouses and all the way
back. It felt good to sit.

He wasn\'t finished, though, no matter how much he wished to shut everything
out and lay down for a while. Classes were over, at least, but he wasn\'t
done yet. He\'d decided already that he\'d better tell them what was going on,
knowing they\'d want to know about any progress in locating the boys. \"I\'ve
been trying to contact Severus by telepathy. It\'s...\" he gave a slight
gesture with his hands, completely not satisfied with the word he was about
to choose, \"painful, to say the least, for the person who initiates the
connection; especially, if they\'re inexperienc"
"

\"But why would you want to talk to him through telepathy if it\'s painful?\"
Ron asked, frowning. He shrugged, and in the process jostled his and
Hermione\'s joined hands off their perch on the arm rest of his chair.
Instead of breaking contact, they simply lifted and rested them down on the
rest again. \"Couldn\'t you just use an owl?\"

Remus shook his head, closing his eyes for a nt ant as the movement didn\'t
improve the state of his headache. \"It\'s safer this way for everyone. Owls
can be intercepted and I haven\'t a clue if they even have any fireplaces
connected to the Floo Network, plus I didn\'t want to chance anyone finding
out,\" Remus said, trying not to sniff at the slow trickle he began to feel
starting in his nose again. \"Anyway, you two wanted to see me for
something?\"

\"Yes,\" Hermione nodded. \"We\'ve been getting a lot of students asking where
Harry is, even if it\'s just in passing and not a direct question, everyone
has noticed. Even some of the Slytherins are wondering, though they don\'t
necessarily think Malfoy\'s with him, they\'re getting angry that their Seeker
is missing, too.\" Hermione stopped to look at Ron for a moment, and he only
nodded, not having anything else to add, really. \"What should we do?\" she
asked, looking back to Remus. She wished she felt there was something more
she could do about the situation, and there was only so long they could keep
dodging questions until someone went searching for the answers themselves,
or began to put clues together.

\"I\'ll talk to the Headmaster tomorrow morning at the meeting. If worse comes
to worse, tell them you either don\'t know or that Harry\'s out running a few
errands for Dumbledore, or is in a training exercise,\" Lupin replied,
rubbing his temple. There were flaws in all of those options, and all he
really wished was that Harry hadn\'t run off for seemingly no apparent
reason. \"Either way, I\'ll find out how to address questions when I speak to
Dumbledore.\"

\"Thank you, sir,\" Ron said, catching the frustrated and tired looks cross
the older man\'s face. Hermione nodded and they stood from their seats,
making their way to the door and out of Remus\' office. They just hoped no
matter what Harry and Malfoy were doing, that Harry would make it back in
one piece.

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