I am cold.

Hogsmeade in the middle of January is always cold. The cold is one of the only things that has stayed the same in Hogsmeade.

Most of the shops have closed down, there are purple ministry of magic posters in every window, and the streets are almost deserted. I wouldn't have come down from the castle on this miserable day if I didn't desperately need to some quills and parchment from Schrivenshafts. I only had one beaten up quill left and a few scraps of parchment.

So, I continued down the high street, making sure my scarf was wrapped firmly around my neck. Hogsmeade wasn't the only thing that had changed. Hogwarts had changed. The population of the school was only half of what it used to be. Most of the people I knew had been pulled out of the school by their parents and Harry, Ron, and Hermione weren't there either, but they were missing for a different reason.

There were rumors flying around that they were hunting Voldemort, tracking down ways to finally defeat him. I don't know if these stories are true. How much faith should you put in a story that you overheard an overexcited Hufflepuff telling his equally excited friend while you were using the loo?

Where ever they are and whatever they are doing I can bet you that Hermione will be as quick thinking and stubborn as ever, Ron will be just as stubborn if not more so, and Harry will either be brooding or plowing on with stolid determination.

Merlin, I hope they're safe.

Of course, they hadn't bothered to tell me where they went. Who confides anything in Neville Longbottom?

I mean, we weren't the closest of friends but I thought maybe after what happened at the ministry they might've bothered to tell me. I like to think that I did something of use there but how could I have done. I got my nose broken and my wand snapped. I was dead weight on the group. Well, at least I was conscious.

Well, that was years ago and they probably forgot all about it.

I looked down the street and shivered from the stinging cold. Maybe, I can stop at the Three Broomsticks on the way back to the castle. Wait, no the Three Broomsticks closed down last week.

I heard some rustling to my left and started. I turned and found myself staring down a side alley. I saw someone with long, dirty blond hair rummaging in a rubbish bin. It was Luna Lovegood.

I stood and just stared. Luna had been one of the few students who had returned and my only friend to return. Actually, I'm not even sure if she thinks I'm a friend of hers. You never know with Luna, she is so hard to read.

I'm good at reading people. For a while I didn't talk to people I watched them. In first year, I could've told you that Ron and Hermione were going to get together. I might've had a crush on her back then but they were just obvious. Harry was pretty obvious too. You could always tell if he was in a good or bad mood even if he was trying to project a happy exterior you could see the troubles in his eyes, but Luna, now, she was different. She could make you so confused as to what she was feeling or thinking you wouldn't know what to expect.

I suddenly realized that I had been standing there and staring at her like an idiot for several minutes so I started to ask why she was sorting through trash when to my horror a figure in black robes suddenly apparated right behind her.

"Luna, look out!" I cried to no avail. The figure, who I assumed was a deatheater, grabbed her from behind just as another deatheater apparated right in front of me.

I tried to swiftly take out my wand but a loose thread from my mitten got caught on one of the clasps of my cloak.

I watched as though in slow motion as my wand fell to the ground and the deatheater shouted, "STUPEFY!"

Everything went black.