Chapter 7: The Journey Part III

"What?!" Severus Snape all but shouted. This caused many people on the bus to turn around and look at him, but he didn't care. He looked out the window and, sure enough, saw Lucius Malfoy and Antonin Dolohov impatiently and arrogantly standing on the line leaning onto the bus.

"Fuck!" Snape said in a voice that was just above a whisper. He leaned back as well, as if the two death eaters would be able to see him from their position on the ground, which was highly unlikely.

"What do we do now? We can't very well disapparatein a bus full of muggles!" Amy looked back and forth between Snape and Tonks. Her panic matched theirs, especially since she did not know what was happening.

"What's going on?" Snape turned toward her and Tonks.

"Miss Beckett, I'm afraid it would take too long to explain everything right now. I promise that once we are out of harm's way I'll explain everything. We need to get off this bus."

"But how are we going to do that without them seeing us? They're getting closer to the front!" Tonks chanced a look out the window and leaned back once more.

"We need to time it perfectly. As soon as Malfoy steps onto the bus and goes to swipe his metro card, we'll leave out the back door. If we do it after, he'll see us, and if we do it before, Dolovoh will see. There are enough people in front of us to provide adequate cover. Once we get off the bus we have to run back inside and find an abandoned area. Miss Beckett, it is absolutely imperative that you run as fast as you can inside and do not look back."

Amy went to look out the window, but Tonks and Snape both pushed her back.

"About how much danger are we in?" Amy asked, with fear in her eyes when she saw that there was no longer any humor in Tonks' face.

"We'll be in a lot more if you don't do exactly as I say," snapped Snape, who was carefully watching the movement of the line.

"Don't worry, dear. Severus and I are highly trained magical beings. We'll get you out of here in one piece." Tonks put a soothing hand on Amy's shoulder. Severus put his hand on her other shoulder, but in a less than soothing kind of way.

"Alright, get ready. When I say, go through the door and move back inside as fast as you can." He waited a few seconds for the perfect moment.

"Now!" he whispered sharply, just as Malfoy was stepping onto the bus and trying to figure out exactly how to put the card in. The three of them jumped out of their seats, pushed the back door open and ran back up the ramp that led indoors. They slowed down slightly once they got inside, but moved quickly as they found a small area by a group of telephones where there were no other people.

"Why the bloody hell were they there?" Tonks asked, surprisingly not out of breath.

"I don't know, but it can't be good. I'm assuming that they didn't see us beforehand, or I would have been summoned or dead. I'm also assuming that they don't know exactly where Miss Beckett lives, seeing as how they planned to follow her onto the bus. I don't know how they knew you were going to be on the bus at that time, but it worries me greatly. We're going to have to get to her house and back to Hogwarts as fast as possible." Amy just watched as the two continued speaking about things she didn't quite understand.

"Side-Along Apparition?" Tonks suggested.

"Exactly what I was thinking."

"Will it work?"

"We have no other choice." Snape tuned to Amy. "Miss Beckett, I need you to close your eyes and envision your room. Try to visualize every detail, everything that makes it unique." He and Tonks then grabbed on to Amy's waist. She gave them both a weird look, and all three of them closed their eyes. They all opened them again when nothing happened after about ten seconds.

"Are you thinking hard enough?" Snape asked Amy.

"Severus, it's not her fault," Tonks answered before Amy could. "It doesn't work if the person apparating doesn't know what the place looks like."

"I was afraid of that." Snape put his head down and then snapped it up quickly.

"I have an idea." He looked around to make sure no one was watching and took out his wand. He pointed it at Amy's head. At her look of panic he said, "don't worry, this won't hurt." He then put his free hand under her chin, looked her straight in the eyes and said, "legilimens!"

At first he was walking into a small house. A young boy, probably no older than sixteen, was shaking his head sadly at him.

An older man's voice was shouting, "she's dead, she's dead!" from a distance. Amy was moving slowly and kept looking around, not quite sure what was going on.

Snape swiftly removed himself from the memory and found one where he was in a relatively small room with grey walls. Amy, an adult male, a male around Amy's age, and the same younger male from the previous memory were moving pieces of furniture around the room.

He assumed that it was Amy's room, because Amy was directing everyone where to put the furniture. A cheery, older blonde woman came into the room with a tray full of drinks. The hairs on the back of Snape's neck stood up.

There's something…about this woman he thought. No time for that now. Snape temporarily filed the woman's face in the back of his mind and formed a mental roadmap of where all the furniture in the room was. He took one more look around the room and broke the spell. Amy blinked a few times, obviously confused and slightly startled.

"I've got it, let's go." Snape grabbed on to Amy and Tonks grabbed on to him. Within seconds they appeared in the same grey room that Snape had seen in Amy's memory.

However, it was a lot brighter and fuller now. The bed, located in the middle of the room, was covered in bright orange sheets. One of the four walls was covered in pictures of what appeared to be a muggle rock band singer. The wall immediately opposite contained five various framed certificates of academic achievement. Opposite the bed was a large keyboard on a stand. The room was full of princess, pirate, and superhero memorabilia. Randomly placed socks were located around the room, and there was a desk next to the keyboard that looked like it desperately needed to be tidied up. In short, it looked like the room belonged to a brilliant, messy five-year-old.

Tonks looked around the room and smiled. "It's brilliant!"

Snape, instead, glared at the unmade bed and raised his eyebrow at a stuffed superman doll hanging from the ceiling. Amy blushed as she realized that her room was a lot messier than she had thought.

"Sorry about the mess. I wasn't exactly expecting company."

Snape was about to reply, when an obese black cat came out from a hidden corner in the room. It was all black except for white spots on its paws, chest, and one side of its mouth. It stretched slowly and tilted its head at Snape and Tonks, as if wondering who they were.

"What is that?" Snape smirked as the cat waddled in his direction.

"That's Chloe. My cat. Surely you've seen a cat before?" Amy raised her eyebrow to match Snape's.

"Of course I've seen cats before, I just don't think I've ever seen one that size. She's tremendous."

"Well I think she's adorable!" Tonks exclaimed as she went over to pat Chloe on the head. Snape turned his attention to the awards of merit on the wall. He read each one slowly.

"It appears that the Headmaster wasn't exaggerating," he said with a hint of approval. He then turned to look at the floor as Chloe started head-butting him in the leg.

"What does it want?" Snape asked, amused. Amy giggled.

"Well, when she realizes that you don't have any food for her, she'll settle for some attention." Both girls looked at each other in surprise as Snape bent down and scratched Chloe behind the ears. Without warning, Chloe collapsed onto her back and lifted her paws. Snape chuckled and rubbed her stomach. Tonks stared at Snape in disbelief, not wanting to say anything to ruin the moment.

"Can I take her with me? I'm the only one who's ever taken care of her, well, besides my step mom." Amy asked hopefully.

"Of course you can! Lots of the students have pets! Although, most of them are owls or toads. I myself had a turtle when I went to Hogwarts, but he wasn't very much fun." Tonks stopped talking as Snape stood straight up.

"We need to get going as soon as possible. Malfoy and Dolovoh must have realized by now that you're not on that bus. Thought I'm fairly confident that the Headmaster has recently put this house under magical protection, I'd like to get to the safety of Hogwarts as soon as possible."

"...About the bus episode…?" Amy started uncertainly.

"Later."

"What about the portkey?" Tonks asked. She indicated to the clock on Amy's night table. "It's not even…"

"Screw the damned portkey!" Snape exclaimed. "I'm sure the Headmaster will understand if we're a few hours ahead of schedule because our lives depended on it!" He then turned to Amy.

"What exactly do you need to bring with you, Miss Beckett?" Amy walked over next to Snape.

"Well I'll need my clothes, everything in my desk, a couple of things from the bathroom…wait. How are we going to get everything over there? I don't think I have any suitcases and surely we can't carry everything."

"Leave that to us!" Tonks said brightly as she opened one of Amy's drawers and pointed her wand at the shirts inside. "Reducio!" Amy's eyes widened as her shirts shrank to sizes small enough to only fit dolls. She watched as Snape did this with the clothes in her closet and the items on her desk.

"We're going to need something to put these in. Does it matter to you which bags we take?" Snape asked, amazed by the amount of pocketbooks in Amy's closet.

"Surprise me," Amy said, distractedly.

"Don't worry, we'll make your clothes right again once we get to your room. Now let's get into the bathroom and get your things from there." Tonks and Amy left Snape to shrink everything else in Amy's room while they went straight across the hall to the bathroom. It was a florescent white, with white and brown marble and brown decorative towels. Everything matched perfectly. Amy went into a drawer and started taking stuff out. Tonks stared at the curling iron that rested on the marble counter top.

"Oh, what's this?" Tonks asked as she picked it up.

"Tonks, don't!" Amy yelled, but she was too late. Tonks yelped and dropped the iron back onto the marble service. Snape burst into the room with his want out.

"What's happened?" he asked.

"I'm so sorry. I must have left that on this morning. Don't move, I've got just the thing!" Snape moved to the side as Amy ran out of the room. She came back seconds later, holding what looked like part of a plant. She broke it open and put it in Tonks' hand.

"What is that?" Snape asked suspiciously.

"Aloe," Amy said simply. "There are two aloe plants by the window in the living room. They come in useful, actually. I burn myself quite a bit." Snape's eyes narrowed.

"Where on Earth did you get aloe plants?"

"I don't know. My step mom got them. They've been here since before I moved in. Why?" Snape looked confused, then uncomfortable.

"It's just that…muggles don't usually have aloe plants. Think about it. A plant that has healing properties that automatically re-grows without you having to do anything to take care of it?" Amy's eyes lit up.

"I never thought about it that way. It does seem a bit magical." She turned to Tonks.

"How are you doing?"

Tonks laughed it off. "Please, I'll be fine. I've done much worse.

Snape shrunk the items in the bathroom that Amy had taken out and brought them into her room. It looked a lot larger now that most of the items in it had been shrunk.

"I took the liberty of shrinking everything that looked like it belonged to the cat." Snape said. Amy smirked to herself, imagining Snape shrinking the litter box and putting it with the rest of her stuff.

"I don't suppose we can shrink the cat," Snape joked. "Do you have a cage or something we can put her in?

"There's one right in here," Amy said as she reached into the closet. She pulled out a large, dome-shaped box with a small metal grate in front. She then took a piece of cat food and put it in the cage. Chloe waddled in, and Amy shut the door behind her.

"Sorry, Chloe. I'll let you out as soon as I can. Then you can have all the treats you want, okay?" Amy went to take the cage, groaned at its weight, and put it back down.

"I'll take her," said Snape, as he lifted it up with a little extra effort. Tonks leaned in close to Amy's ear. "If the cat goes missing, I'd check in Snape's rooms. He seems to like Chloe more than he likes most people." Amy smiled.

"Is everybody ready?" Snape asked seriously.

"Can't we just see the rest of the house?" Tonks whined.

"No. And if you ask another stupid question, I'll put you in the damned cage instead. Make sure we have everything, we're not coming back today." Everyone took one or two bags and then joined together in the middle of the room. Snape disapparated first with the cat. Tonks held onto Amy and they went next. All three of them appeared in front of the gates of Hogwarts.

"I don't see anything but a burned down old building," Amy said, sounding disappointed.

"You'll have to wait until we get inside, dear. It's charmed to look like that from the outside to muggles. They usually don't come here on purpose," Tonks explained.

She held open the gate for Amy, who stopped walking as soon as she got inside. She looked all around, at the castle in the distance, at the students running around outside playing with brightly colored, flying balls and exploding cards, and at the eccentric looking man with a very long beard, half-moon spectacles, and amethyst purple robes coming toward them with a pleasantly surprised look on his face.

A/N: As always, thanks and love to my wonderful reviewers. Especially those who review each chapter. To chocolaterox92, about the Snape/OC thing, I really haven't thought about it lately. I don't want to give anything away by giving a definite yes or no, but it's really up to the characters. They write themselves, really. Hope this answer, or lack thereof, doesn't frustrate you