Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Harry Potter.
Written for Written for 5000 F's challenge & The Short Haul challenge.
A massive thank you to my readers and reviewers.
AN: I have changed the summary as I have changed slightly where I'm taking the story.
Dumbledore didn't know why the Sorting Hat had chosen to sort more students into the house Marshmallow. One was bad enough, but once the sorting was finally over there was a total of five.
He had tried using Legilimency on them all, but with every one of them he was greeted with one image; one very strange image.
He had seen dancing cats in Hermione Granger's mind. In Harry Potter's he saw faceless people surrounded by both light and darkness. In Draco Malfoy's he saw snakes being drowned by money.
In Neville Longbottom's there was a cot and screaming, screams so loud it was almost deafening. In Ron Weasley's he saw the boy being drowned in a sea of red.
He'd expected at least an outcry about where they'd been sorted from the Malfoy boy and Weasley boy, but they had just accepted it.
But what worried him slightly was when Hermione had finally been coaxed out from under the Hufflepuff table she grabbed a plate, piled it with food and walked out of the Great Hall; the four boys did exactly the same as her and neither he or any other professor had seen the five since.
Three hours had passed and he was very worried, the five didn't have a common room or dorm room. They didn't know their way around Hogwarts and he was sure at least one if not all of them were unhinged.
While Dumbledore was worrying and the other professors were searching for them the five were hiding out in an old abandoned classroom.
Why? they weren't exactly sure, it just seemed like a good idea.
"Do you think we should go and find a professor to find out where our dorms are,?" Neville asked, barely above a whisper.
"No, our trunks are here and I have sleeping bags, lots of chocolate and cola in my bag. There is both a girl's and boy's bathroom across the corridor I say we stay here,!" Hermione said, her voice made it sound like it was all a suggestion when in reality she'd already decided that's what was happening.
"Why do you have that stuff in your bag? And what else do you have in there?," Harry asked, before yawning. He'd eaten more food than he ever had before in his entire life.
"I have this stuff in case of emergencies. I also have thirty boxes of matches, an axe, some pain killers, a camera, a water pistol and a few fake identities in case I have to flee and start a new life," Hermione said, like having these things were perfectly ordinary.
"If there's an emergency I want the axe!" Draco said.
"No, you can have the matches. Ron can have the camera, Harry the painkillers and Neville can have the water pistol," Hermione declared, the axe was hers and only hers.
"If Malfoy gets matches I want matches!" Ron whined.
"You'll get the camera and be happy about it. Now I'm going to go to the bathroom and change, Neville you're in charge while I'm gone," Hermione told Ron who'd gone into sulk mode.