There were no means of steering; the dragon did not even know we were there, and I knew that if it turned sharply or rolled in midair, we would find it impossible to cling onto its broad back. Nevertheless, as we climbed higher and higher, London unfurling below us like a gray-and-green map, my overwhelming feeling was of gratitude for an escape that seemed impossible. Crouching low over the beast's neck, I clung tight to the metallic scales, and the cool breeze was felt nice whipping through my hair; the dragon's wings beating the air like the sails of a windmill.

Soon, the coast was beneath us as the dragon flew near the water. This caused immediate dread.

"We're dropping!" I yelled.

"I say we jump!" Ron shouted.

"When?" Hermione asked.

"Now!" I shrieked. I plummeted feet-first toward the surface of the lake. The drop was greater than I had estimated and I hit the water hard, plunging like a stone into a freezing lake. I kicked toward the surface and emerged, panting. The others emerged, all spluttering and gasping. I looked around trying to find land when I noticed the nearby bank. I swam over to it, kicking and using all my strength. Together we washed up onto the land.

"He knows. You-Know-Who. He knows we broke into Gringotts. He knows what we took, and he knows we're hunting Horcruxes." Harry said. He must have had another vision.

"How did he know?" Hermione asked panting as we climbed up the hill.

"I saw him."

"You let him in?" He nodded "Harry, you can't do that!"

"Hermione, I can't always help it! Well, maybe I can. I don't know!"

"Never mind that! What happened?" I asked.

"Well, he's angry and scared too." Hermione pulled out her bag and from her bag a serum. "He knows, if we find and destroy all the Horcruxes, we'll be able to kill him." Hermione got down on her knees and opened the pipette, squirting the serum onto our sore and calloused hands. "I reckon he'll stop at nothing to make sure we don't find the rest. And there's more. One of them is at Hogwarts."

"What?" Hermione asked. "You saw it?"

I took off the cape of my dress and wrung out my hair. Harry took off his shirt. I grabbed a towel from the ground and wrapped it around my body.

"I saw the castle. And Rowena Ravenclaw. It must have something to do with her. We have to go there, now!"

"What, we can't do that!" Hermione shrieked "We've got to plan, we've got to figure it out!"

"Hermione, when have any of our plans ever actually worked?"

Harry was putting on a dry shirt. "We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose."

"He's right!" Ron said putting on his shirt. "One problem: Snape's Headmaster now, we can't just move freely from the front door!"

"Well, we'll go to Hogsmeade, to Honeydukes. Take the secret passage in the cellar. It's... There's something wrong with him. It's like, you know, in the past... I've always been able to follow his thoughts. And now everything just feels disconnected."

"Maybe it's the Horcruxes. Maybe he's getting weaker. Maybe he's dying!" I suggest.

"No! No, it's... It's more like he's wounded. If anything, he feels more dangerous."

"Right well, let Hermione and I change in peace before we do anything. I cannot do anything in this dress." Ron and Harry nodded and went off around the bank so Hermione and I could change. I put on jeans and a shirt with a jacket and Hermione did the same. We called the boys back over as I was pulling my hair up and out of my face.

I took my wand out from my bag and threw in Bellatrix's wand. It was getting dark now, and everything seemed much calmer. I grabbed Hermione's hand in one and Harry's in another, and we apparated to Hogsmeade: dark shop fronts, and the outline of black mountains beyond the village, and the curve in the road ahead that led off toward Hogwarts, and light spilling from the windows of the Three Broomsticks. But when we appeared, sirens immediately went off. We glanced at each other before dashing off into an alley. There was a big commotion.

"Right here. Come on!" I heard as we escaped to a cloth covered bench.

"Search everywhere!"

"Go, move!"

I could hear people approaching, opening the cloths covering the other tables. The sirens went on again, and I could hear the sound of their retreating footsteps.

"Faster!"

We got up from our hiding place and ran to another alley but were stopped by a large gate. A door to one of the shops opened.

"In here, Potter!" a man whisper-yelled from a glance he looked like Dumbledore? Harry glanced at us before rushing into the store. We followed the man downstairs quickly.

"Did you get a look at him?" Hermione asked me. "For a second I thought that was..."

"I know. Dumbledore!" I replied. We walked around the room slowly. There was a moving picture on the wall of a young girl, no older than 14, with blond hair and eyes that sparkled like Dumbledore's once did. Did Dumbledore have a sister? I looked at the wall some more and saw a mirror where a triangle shape of it was cut, just like the shape of Harry's mirror in his sock. In the mirror was Harry's face.

"Harry? I can see you in this," I said, glancing back at him. He was looking in his Mirror shard. The door opened again.

"Bloody fools, what are you thinking coming here? Have you any idea how dangerous it is?" The man stood there, with a long gray beard and hair. He looked like Dumbledore, but without that kind sense of humor that Dumbledore once had.

"You're Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother. It's you who I've been seeing in here," said Harry, pointing to his mirror shard. "You're the one who sent Dobby."

"Why've you left him?" Aberforth asked walking over to the window.

"He's dead."

"Sorry to hear it. I liked that elf."

"Who gave that to you? The mirror?"

"Mundungus Fletcher, about a year ago."

"Dung had no right selling that to you. It belongs to..."

"Sirius... Albus told me." Aberforth approached Harry. He also told me you'd likely be hacked off, if you ever found that I had it, but ask yourself: Where would you be if I didn't?"

After their mini staring contest, Aberforth went to get us food. I hadn't realized I was ravishingly hungry until the food was set on the table. I dove the bread and grabbed a butterbeer, taking it all at once.

"Do you hear from the others much? From the Order?" Hermione asked.

"The Order has finished. You-Know-Who has won. Anyone who says otherwise is killing themselves."

"We need to get into Hogwarts, tonight," Harry said, still standing where he was 5 minutes ago. "Dumbledore gave us a job to do."

"Did he now?" Aberforth asked. "Nice job? Easy?"

"We've been hunting Horcruxes. We think the last one's inside the castle. But we'll need your help getting in." Harry explained.

"The job my brother has given you is a suicide mission. Do yourself a favor, boy. Go home!" Aberforth said. "Live a little longer."

"Dumbledore trusted me to see this through," Harry defended.

"What makes you think you can trust him? What makes you think you can believe anything my brother told you? And in all the time you knew him... Did he ever mention my name? Did he ever mentioned hers?" Aberforth pointed at the picture on the wall of the young girl.

"Why should he... " Harry began.

"Keep secrets? You tell me."

"I trusted him."

"That's a boy's answer. A boy goes chasing Horcruxes on the word of a man who wouldn't even tell him where to start. You're lying! Not just on me, it doesn't matter. To yourself as well. That's what a fool does. You don't strike me as a fool, Harry Potter! So, I ask you again; there must be a reason."

"I'm not interested in what happened between you and your brother.

I don't care that you've given up.

I trusted the man I knew. We need to get into the castle tonight," Harry demanded.

Aberforth stood quiet for a second then turned to the painting of the girl. "You know what to do."

The girl nodded and turned around, walking away in her painting.

"Where have you sent her?" I asked.

"You'll see. Soon enough." Aberforth walked away from us and to the door. The rest of us looked at the retreating girl.

"That's your sister, Ariana. Isn't it?" Hermione asked. "She died very young, didn't she?"

Aberforth stopped what he was doing and talked over his shoulder. "My brother sacrificed many things, Mr. Potter. On his journey to find power. Including Ariana. And she was devoted to him. He gave her everything, but time."

"Thank you, Mr. Dumbledore," said Hermione. Aberforth opened up the door again and walked away.

"He did save our lives twice! Kept an eye on us on that mirror. That doesn't seem like someone who's given up!" Hermione whispered the end.

I glanced at the picture. "She's coming back. What's that with her?"

We stepped back in fear as the picture swung open slowly revealing a face I hadn't seen in awhile.