Early fall turned quickly to late fall, and the temperature dropped. For the rest of the year I wouldn't have to worry about the long and hot days, and sleepless, muggy nights. There were times when I had considered jumping into the lake, though the thought of the giant squid made me think twice.

All of my classes were getting harder, especially potions. It was dreadful, Snape got more sour every year, and no one regretted this more than Harry. Harry had to put up with his dryly sarcastic comments about this, that, and the other. And Snape had always hated Harry, it was positively dreadful to watch. Harry was determined to put a stop to it somehow.

Lucky for him, we're best friends with Hermione, who is full of wonderful ideas. I agreed very much with a certain one she suggested. "How about you boil his head in wart-grow and chop a few essential body parts off?" I had nodded my head, but to my great surprise and dismay Harry was shaking his.

"Man, why not," I protested. He smiled at me and shook his head again.

"Ron, you know we could never do that anyway. Hermione was joking, besides we'd get in big trouble for it." He looked at me considerably for a second, or so I thought until I realized he was staring off into space. I waved my hand in front of his face and he began speaking again as though he had never stopped. "I rather like the idea of proving myself to him, or surprising him."

"Well, that's easy. Just do so well on something so that he can't take points off of it. He'd be furious," I said slouching back in my chair, still a bit disappointed about not using the other idea.

"That'd be a good start," Harry said smiling. "So I'll study. A bunch. Hermione, what are the best books you can recommend about potions?"

Hermione look so pleased, I was afraid she'd wet her knickers. "Harry, I was just..." I began, but was cut off by Hermione, of course.

"Well," she said, "you should begin with reading the books for class, the ones you bought before this year started. But if you want something with more details about potions and stuff like that, I could recommend a few, but they could be hard to get."

Harry smiled brightly at her. I thought, 'Oh great! The restricted section.' Sighing, I closed my eyes, waiting for their maniacal approach to the situation to die down. I never would have guessed the discovery this would lead me to.

The next night approached and Harry and I had just pulled out his dad's invisibility cloak. I had been right about the restricted section. It made me wonder what was in those books that Harry wanted so badly. In my opinion Harry was taking this thing way too seriously. It made me wonder if I should tell anyone, but they'd probably be worried about his sanity, and I didn't want my best friend shipped off to Saint Mungo's. So, I thought it best to keep quiet.

Anyway, there we were sneaking into the library at the most godforsaken hour, excuse the language, but geesh! Harry had a determined look on his face, and I knew nothing was going to turn him around until he got his book. I shook my head and he glanced at me funny. Maybe he thought I was crazy. Who knows maybe I was ... am?

When we reached the restricted section's door, we stopped. Harry reached out and unlocked it. We entered and slipped off the cloak. Harry then smiled at me and said, "I'll take this with me. You go that way and I'll go this way. If I see anyone coming, I'll come get you. If you see anyone you either hide, or if you can reach me without whoever it is seeing, come to me and we'll get out of here. Now, let's get this thing over with."

I nodded, but felt a bit scared. Of course he would get the cloak, he who had so much experience sneaking out when I didn't. I felt like someone was watching me, but that was probably just the thought of it. I looked at the first row of books. I couldn't remember what I was supposed to be finding. I fished around in my pocket and pulled out a torn peace of parchment. It said "A Potion Master's Book" It wouldn't take much to guess what that was about. Potions, what a boring subject. Better than History of Magic, worse than Divinations. I shrugged and began my search. Let me say that there were some pretty interesting sounding books in there, and if not interesting strange. Some of them sounded a bit like they were about porn or something. I couldn't help but snicker at these.

I jumped in glee when I saw what I thought was the book, but that turned out to be something else. I cursed the dark and looked on. As I scanned over one shelf, I saw a book that looked somehow out of place. It was thinner than most of the other books, and it just had a certain quality about it. I couldn't help myself. I reached forward and took the book from it's spot. It felt old and had a very strange texture to it. There was no title on it and it's outside was plain brown, not even a picture. Curiosity overtook me and I opened the cover.

I sighed. It was blank. That was a bummer, but at least it wasn't something that would kill me, or do something worse. I shook my head and decided to put it back into it's place on the shelf, but just as I was about to close it, something quite unexpected happened.

A figure rose out from the page. He was tall and thin with slick blonde hair, his skin was pale and his clothes hanged on him in a way as if they would soon fall off. He seemed familiar in a strange way. I didn't know whether or not to close the book or leave it open. However, once again curiosity got the best of me and I left it open. The beautiful man winked at me, causing blood to rise into my face very quickly. I was too entranced though to put it down. The man's long and pale fingers glided down his body, slowly making their way towards his lower region. I could feel my body start to react to the man's actions. I had never told anyone about my secret before. In fact, I didn't really even admit it to myself. I guess I was afraid of what people would think, what people would say. I was indeed attracted to men, but very much in denial.

Before my brain could process what was happening to my body, I heard a loud sound, as if something had fallen and hit the ground. I snapped the book shut and looked around myself wildly. 'Harry must have dropped a book or something' I thought to myself, hoping that was the case. I shoved the book into my pocket and made my way to the other side of the restricted section, all thoughts of 'other' things well out of my mind.

I looked around for Harry everywhere. Eventually though, I gave up and made my way to the door. I was wondering bitterly to myself if he had left without me. When I was almost at the door to leave, I just about tripped over a small book. I knew that hadn't been there before, could Harry have dropped this? It certainly was heavy enough to make that noise, though it sure didn't look big enough to weigh that much. As I reached down to lift the book, my fingers brushed against some cloth. I knew in an instant it was the invisibility cloak. My thoughts immediately went to Harry. Where was he? Was he okay? I was worried to say the least. But there wasn't anything I could do in there. So I put the book into one of my robe pockets, just in case, wrapped the invisibility cloak around myself, and headed out of the library.

Once I was out, I knew it would be silly to just wonder around looking for Harry. So, I decided to go and get Hermione. She'd know what to do, like always. Walking down the hallways alone was very frightening for me that night. Things seemed to follow me and I could hear imaginary voices. But the voices weren't imaginary, and I soon realized this. I stopped in mid-step, unsure of what to do. Instinct told me to just keep going. However, another voice in my head said different. Now I wonder why I always listen to that voice.

I turned from the pathway I was taking to get to Gryffindor tower, and walked quietly towards the voices. As I got closer, I knew that they were familiar. I couldn't quite place them though, so I kept going until I reached a corner. I knew that just around this corner was the source of the conversation. Just as I was about to poke my head around to look, a figure came rushing by. A Ravenclaw boy, judging by his colors. I'd say he was a sixth year, but I wasn't positively sure. He looked quite scared. My stomach knotted up. What kind of horrible creature was around the corner? Temptation was strong and I peeked around. Then I knew who the monsters were, and they were monsters. It was.....

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