Me and You // Ronarry {Discontinued}

Part 11

Hello, my dear readers!

Summary: Second term of fifth year and Harry has his priorities. They're not straight, of course, and they're probably not right, but they're there.

Harry spent much of the next morning in silent dread for his first Occlumency lesson. Was Snape going to see into his mind? What would he see? He was surely going to see the times Harry spent with Ron, times that Harry would rather keep to himself and Ron.

On top of fretting over that, D.A. members kept coming up and asking when the first meeting of the term would be. His answer remained the same: He didn't know, just that it wouldn't be that night.

The only ray of light came from Cho Chang when she stopped to talk to Harry.

"Had a good Christmas?"

"Yeah, not bad," Harry replied.

"Mine was pretty quiet. By the way, there's another Hogsmeade trip next month, did you see the notice?"

Harry shook his head.

"It's on Valentine's Day..." As Harry continued to stare at her blankly, she continued, "You could ask Ron to go with you."

The pieces fell together. "Oh! Right, thanks, Cho."

He hurried off to find Ron, aware of Cho laughing behind him.

Apparently, Ron had had the same thought for they both ended up asking at the same time.

"Do you want to come to Hogsmeade with me?"

"Yes," they said.

"Great," said Ron.

"Yeah," was Harry's brilliant response.

Hermione stifled a laugh.

Harry supposed it could have gone worse.

"I don't see how Occlumency could have gone worse."

Ron cast a sidelong glance at Harry as they entered their dorm. He had just told Ron and Hermione about his discovery, that the weapon Voldemort was looking for was in the Department of Mysteries. He was certain of it.

"Well, I suppose it should help in the long run, right?" said Ron uncertainly.

Harry shrugged. Then his legs buckled underneath him and he collapsed on the floor.

"Harry!" Ron fell to his side.

A laugh sounded, and it sounded so wild, so insane, that it was only when Harry rolled onto his back that Ron realized that Harry himself had made the sound. Sweat poured down his forehead.

"Harry!" Ron shouted, shaking him.

Harry's eyes flew open and the laughter died away. "He's really happy," he croaked.

"About what?"

"I don't know. Something he's been hoping for." He spoke with such certainty that Ron felt a shiver run through his body.

"We'll probably find out soon enough, whatever it is," said Ron, helping Harry to his feet.

Ron had been right, unsurprisingly, for the next morning, Harry found himself looking into the eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange on the front page of the Daily Prophet. She was the only witch, he noticed; the other nine were wizards, but they were all Death Eaters regardless.

The Ministry claimed that Sirius must have helped them escape Azkaban, but over the next few days, Harry noticed many students didn't seem happy with this and seemed to be falling back on the possibility that Voldemort had returned.