Harry Potter: Love's Second Chance

Their lips met softly, tenderly. A kiss that showed the love they shared with one another. Harry pulled Hermione into his arms and they slipped into another silent gaze as Hermione felt herself wanting to fall into Harry's eyes. It lasted until another thought caught up to Hermione. "Harry…your link to Voldemort. How are you going to let him show you Sirius?"

Harry eyes widened. "I...I don't know. I need to figure out how to loosen my Occlumency don't I?"

"True, but are you going to fall asleep in the History OWL again?" Hermione asked. "Voldemort could only make you see things when you were sleeping….." Hermione remembered Harry screaming out in their OWL two years previous. Then a strange thought appeared; questions that wouldn't quite settle into something that could be answered. "But… but how could Voldemort expect you to find a way to London in the middle of the school year from a school that was locked down by the Ministry? Wouldn't he expect you to go tell someone?"

"I tried remember? I tried to tell McGonagall."

"Exactly!" Hermione exclaimed as the pieces started to come together in her mind. "But Voldemort still had his Death Eaters there waiting and…and…" She stopped and caught her breath, "Voldemort has been sending you images since Christmas trying to get you into the Department of Mysteries."

"Yes…"

"So this time he changed tactics and added Sirius," Hermione explained. "But how could he know you fell for it and you didn't tell someone? Or that you didn't make contact with Sirius. I know he had Kreacher make up a lie, but he had no way to know if it had worked. Sirius might have been near the fireplace getting food or something, or Sirius might have heard the floo and ordered Kreacher to tell him who it had been. If you had told someone or found Sirius, his Death Eaters could have walked into a reverse trap."

"So he knew that I hadn't told anyone or…." Harry stopped as the answer came to him. "He must have been reading my mind."

"I…I don't think so," Hermione replied. "Well maybe…" Hermione's lip disappeared under her teeth as she concentrated, "but if he had been reading your mind, wouldn't he have known Dumbledore was at the Department of Mysteries? Your memory clearly showed Bellatrix had to tell him he was there. Besides wouldn't Voldemort have shown up as soon as you had the Prophecy instead of waiting for us to battle with the Death Eaters? If we'd known how the doors work, we could have escaped fairly easily," Then thoughts of that night came back vividly. She remembered what Lucius Malfoy had said that night. 'the Dark Lord wondered why you didn't come running when he showed you the place where it was hidden in your dreams.' "No if he could read your mind that easily he'd have known you didn't know about the Prophecy. Remember Lucius said Voldemort didn't know."

"He...he knew I didn't have the prophecy when he arrived though. He said he could see it in my mind."

"Oh..." Hermione replied, as her mind getting ready to dismiss her idea then until she remembered. "Were you looking him in the eyes at that time?"

"Yea...of course, Legilimency," Harry realized. "When I was looking at him he could read my mind."

Hermione nodded.

"So what are you suggesting…someone told him?"

"I think so," Hermione said. "And I can think of only one person who knew we were concerned about Sirius at the Department of Mysteries and who knew we hadn't been able to tell anyone."

Harry sat up and stared at Hermione. "Snape?"

"When did your scar start hurting more that night?"

Harry thought back to two years previous. "It was like it was on fire when I first woke up from the vision," Harry said as he winced and his fingers went to his scar as he mentally felt that pain again. "But then it settled into a low ache until..." He looked at Hermione, "until after we were with Umbridge."

"More importantly, after you told Snape. It would have taken him some time to communicate with Voldemort."

"But…but he told the Order."

"You pointed out the other day that it is most likely he was really working with both sides. He probably covered his tracks by contacting Sirius…but then he had that window of time. Harry we were on those bloody thestrals for hours.*"

"Next week's sunrise is supposed to be around four-thirty," Hermione continued, "but with the mountains around us, it's closer to five. I checked because the timing was important. Now you said you got back to Dumbledore's office right at sunrise correct?"

"Yes, a little before but not much."

"How long did the battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort last? Ten minutes or so? twenty at the most?"

"Definitely not twenty," Harry replied as he remembered the epic battle.

"How long before that did the Order show up?"

"Not very long, but it could have been thirty minutes."

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