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Ways to annoy Voldermort - Tell him Wormtail has a crush on him. (mugglenet.com)

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It seemed like forever to Harry until Madame Pomfrey came out to see Harry. "They're both going to be fine," said Madame Pomfrey before Harry could ask. "Miss Evans is still unconscious but Miss Granger is awake if you would like to see her."

Harry got up and followed Madame Pomfrey to Hermione's bed.

"Hi Harry," said Hermione.

"Hermione, I'm so sorry," Harry began.

"Harry, nothing Voldemort does is your fault," said Hermione. "You can't blame yourself for everything he does."

"But I always seem to put my friends in danger whenever he's around."

"And that's not your fault. That's just the kind of person Voldemort is." Hermione hugged Harry.

Ron walked in. Harry and Hermione pulled apart.

"Are you alright Hermione?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright," she replied.

"Where's Aleu?" asked Ron.

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey opened the curtains beside Hermione's bed. In the next bed, Aleu was awake.

"Are you okay?" asked Ron.

"Yeah. You think a few Death Eaters are going to stop me?"

"How did you get a sword?" asked Ron

"When Voldemort got there with his Death Eaters, I recognised one of the Death Eaters standing behind us. It was Professor Riddle. Without anyone seeing, she passed me a sword with a note attatched. The note said that she was a spy for the Order and that the sword might come in handy. When the Death Eaters began to attack, I knew that I needed to use the sword."

"So Riddle is a Death Eater," said Ron.

"Yes, but she's a spy for the Order too. She helped me, Ron and Sirius get out of limbo. She had some extra potion. That's how we got out. When we reached the outside of the cave, I ran in looking for you."

"You distracted Voldemort long enough for me to curse him, but now you're in danger 'cause he knows you're my sister," said Harry, grimly.

"Yeah, well. I'll deal with it,"said Aleu, shrugging.

Befor Harry could reply, Madame Pomfrey came in, telling Harry and Ron that her patients needed rest.


**********

Two days later Harry, Ron and Ginny went to visit Hermione and Aleu in the hospital wing. They talked about everything that had happened the night before.

"Wow. That sounds so scary," said Ginny after they had finished telling Ginny the story.

"Enough talk about that. How did your date go?" Aleu asked Ginny.

"Great. Me and Draco had a great..," Ginny began before Ron interrupted.

"Malfoy? You went out on a date alone with Malfoy? Where is he? I'm going to kill him!"

"No you're not," said Aleu. "Ginny is old enough to make her own decisions about who she wants to date. How would you like it if she told you who you could and couldn't date?"

"That's different. She's young..."

"I was only eleven when I had my first boyfriend," interrupted Aleu. "Tell me how it went, Ginny."

"Great. We had our drinks and then wandered around for a while. Then we walked back to school and that's all. He said maybe we could catch up on the holidays," said Ginny.

"Where is he anyway?" asked Aleu.

"Professor Riddle wanted to see him. Did you guys hear the news?" asked Ginny.

"What news?" asked Hermione.

"Professor Riddle's pregnant. She's not coming back next year."

"Really?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah. She told me last night when I had prefect duty."

"Looks like Dumbledore needs to find a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," said Ron.

"Yeah and I know just the person," said Aleu.

**********

"I've talked to Dumbledore and the new Minister for Magic, Sasha Mathews, and I'm going to get a fair trial," said Sirius.

"That's great!" said Hermione.

"Finally, I can prove that I was innocent and then maybe you could come and live with me," Sirius suggested to Harry.

"That would be fantastic!" said Harry.

Sirius, Ron and Harry had come to visit Aleu and Hermione in the hospital wing the next day. Hermione was allowed to leave, but Madame Promfrey wanted to keep Aleu in for a couple more days.

"What are you going to do when you're cleared?" asked Aleu.

"I'm not sure. I'll probably help out the Order," replied Sirius.

"I have an even better idea. What if you taught Defence Against the Dark Arts next year?" suggested Aleu.

"Yeah," said Harry. "Then we could spend more time together."

"Me? Teach? I was Mr Rebel when I was at school, Aleu. I'm not exactly teacher material," said Sirius.

"Well, look at me. I'm teaching a Defence class. If I can do it you can. That way Dumbledore doesn't have to try and find a new teacher," Aleu said.

"I suppose I could ask Dumbledore...," began Sirius.

"Yeah!" said Aleu.

"But he might say no, so don't get your hopes up. Besides, there's still the trial," said Sirius.

"Don't worry about that," said Hermione. "You'll be fine."

**********

Soon it was time for everyone to leave Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Aleu and Ginny all shared a compartment. Harry was going back to the Dursleys for a week to pack up his stuff so he could move in with Sirius. If, and Harry didn't want to think about it, but if Sirius didn't get off, Aleu had said that Harry could stay with her. Ginny said that Malfoy was staying with Professor Riddle for the holidays, because he didn't want to live at home anymore. The Hogwarts Express finally reached the station and the five friends got off and said goodbye until they would see each other again.