A/N: I took the first 4 chapters and reformatted them into 10 shorter chapters. I WILL UPLOAD NEW CONTENT AFTER CHAPTER 10.

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Goldie was heading back to the Hufflepuff House when she stopped dead in her tracks and stared straight ahead in surprise. "Hey!" she shouted, gaining the attention of everyone in the hall. The person in question turned, slowly, painfully, and looked at her in surprise. Then a happy smile spread across their face.

"Goldie!"

"Catlin! What are you doing out here?" Goldie rushed to her, grabbing her shoulders and looking her over. "Are you okay? Did you escape? How'd you get past Madam Pomfrey?"

"Your owl distracted her!" Catlin said, shrinking back to get out of the way of the oncoming rush of students.

"Wait, did you actually escape?"

"Yes! Your letter told me to."

"It did?"

"Yes! You told me that I needed to wait until Madam Pomfrey was busy trying to get the owl out - it was making a mess on the hospital beds - and then sneak out of the hospital wing. You wrote it on the back."

"Oh! Right! I'd forgotten about that."

"You forgot you told me to escape?"

"I was distracted by what's going to happen tomorrow!"

"Oh, you mean your date with Jake?"

Goldie's face burned red and she lowered her voice, "I-It's just a study date! Okay? And besides, Bernice is going to be there, so it's not like it'll be romantic. She's probably just going to scream at me the entire time."

Catlin cast a few worried looks around the hall and edged backwards, following the crowd of students. "Let's go, okay? It won't take long for Madam Pomfrey to find me if we're standing out in the hall. Wait, is Bernice the one that hates you?"

"Yeah. Professor Uggeri said that we needed to include her. Okay, he asked us to, but he might as well have told us we had to. Wait a minute."

"Huh?"

"We sent that owl this morning. Did you … Did you escape this morning?"

"Uh-huh."

"What have you been doing this entire time? Have you just been wandering around?"

Catlin took a moment to think before nodding. "Yes. I went out by the lake and spent a lot of time there because I thought Madam Pomfrey would search the castle first. But I got kind of hungry so I came inside during lunch and hid inside the kitchen. Then I stayed there until dinner. House elves are very nice, you know."

"O…kay." Goldie followed Catlin down the hall and back to the Hufflepuff House where they joined the others in the common room. It took less than five seconds for Gwyn to shout out Catlin's name and a whole flood of happy Hufflepuffs crowded around the girl, tugging at her and embracing her tightly. She refrained from wincing in pain, trying not to give away the fact that she hadn't been officially released by the school nurse.

"We missed you," Gwyn said, smiling warmly at her Housemate. "We thought we'd never see you again this semester! It sounded like you got quite the beating. Are you alright?"

Catlin knew that she looked okay - her broken nose and black eye had been healed beautifully, but inside her body and her head she was still banged up. She blinked slowly and nodded, her concussion making it harder to think on the spot. "Very alright," she said, returning the smile. "But I'm kind of tired … You know, it's kind of weird how tired you can get even if you spend your entire day sleeping in the hospital wing."

"Oh, of course," said another Hufflepuff, nodding as if Catlin had imparted some sort of ancient wisdom upon them. "I totally understand that. We'll let you go up to bed. We'll try to keep it down. Do you need anything?"

"No, I think I'll be okay. Thank you."

The sea of Hufflepuffs parted and Goldie and Catlin paced themselves (Goldie as to not look suspicious, Catlin because she felt like she'd topple over at any moment) as they walked up to their dorm. Once there, they sat on Catlin's bed and Goldie began talking.

"Tonight, Evelyn and I are going to sneak out of the castle to get fluxweed."

"What's fluxweed?"

"What's - aren't you supposed to be really into plants?"

Catlin rigidly pointed at her head. "I don't know if you remember but … I had the crap beaten out of me … by a tree. I mean … I ran into it, and that was most of the getting beaten up but … I was also attacked by a dog. Fluxweed isn't really at the front of my mind at the moment."

"Right. It's just some plant that we need for Polyjuice Potion."

"Polyjuice Potion? What are you doing with that?"

Goldie stared at Catlin in silence. "Do you remember anything I wrote in that note?"

"You're the one who forgot you told me to sneak out of the hospital wing, so I don't think it's really fair to attack me for my forgetfulness. And I have a concussion."

Goldie huffed and stood up, pacing around the room. "Okay, well let me just go over it again. After you got hurt by the tree, you lost your wand. Some Gryffindor boys found it and instead of turning it over, they decided to blackmail us into doing their homework. You remember this right? We told you this."

"Yes, I remember that."

"Good. Well, we're - actually Evelyn - supposed to take one boy's exams. But we - she - can't do it if she looks like him. So she has to take Polyjuice Potion to look like him so she can take his exams for him. Are you following?"

"Uh-huh."

"So once the brews the Potion, she can take the exams and then we'll get your wand back."

"Right."

"But we need the fluxweed for the Potion. We had it, but somehow we lost it."

"I don't remember this."

"Oh, well that's because we didn't write this in the letter. This happened at lunch."

"Okay. Go on."

"So we somehow lost the fluxweed we needed, and we don't want to ask those boys for their help anymore, so we're going to find some ourselves. But we need fluxweed that's been picked on a full moon - which is tonight. The Potion takes such a long time to make that we can't miss it. It has to be tonight. Okay?"

Catlin nodded in affirmation. "Makes sense."

"So Evelyn and I are going out tonight to get the fluxweed and -"

"Wait, aren't I going along?"

Goldie made a face, "What? No. You just got out of the hospital wing - without permission -"

"Because you told me too - if I wasn't supposed to come along, then what was the point?"

"- and it's far too dangerous! It's a full moon! Do you know what creatures there are running around the castle grounds on the full moon? We can't risk you out there too! What if you wander off and get hurt?"

"I'm not a baby, though."

"Yes, but you are concussed."

Catlin snorted with laughter. "Concussed? Is that the word/ I guess it is … I feel like I'm forgetting so much." She turned to her friend with pleading eyes. "Let me go with you. I won't be any trouble. I promise! And anything dangerous will be in the Forest. The castle grounds should be safe!"

"Say that to Myrtle," Goldie muttered under her breath.

"Huh? Who?"

"No - no one. Don't worry about it. I guess … I guess you can come along. You just have to be careful. We'll be quick - in and out! We're only grabbing fluxweed, and enough for the Potion. Nothing more, nothing less. And you have to stay beside us so we don't lose you."

"I'll be fine," Catlin stressed, standing up and wandering over to her bookshelf. "I'm not going to get lost." She reached up and trailed her fingers along the curling vines of the plant on one of the shelves. "Did you miss me? I'm sorry I was gone. It looks like you've been taken care of. Yes, I know, my insides don't look as good as my outsides. Huh? Madam Pomfrey? Ah ha ha, yeah, of course she released me …"

Goldie made another face. "That's it. She's officially lost it. Maybe I should leave her here."


That night, Goldie and Evelyn met outside the Hufflepuff House. Evelyn had used the excuse that she would be studying in the library after dinner, but she sneaked up to the bathroom to check on the lacewing flies and then hung around until she could go down to meet her friends. She should have waited longer, but Moaning Myrtle was getting on her last nerve and Evelyn was pretty close to figuring out how to murder a ghost.

They quietly waited for Catlin who slowly left the Hufflepuff House wrapped in a woolen scarf, trying to hide treats in her coat pocket. Evelyn was convinced that Catlin was just trying to milk her injuries from the Whomping Willow and that she should have been given a clean bill of health already. Madam Pomfrey used magic, shouldn't she have been healed already?

"What took you so long?" Evelyn hissed, glancing around in paranoia of being caught.

"I have to find this." She pulled out a long, slender branch from her coat pocket.

"What is that?" Evelyn gaped, grabbing the stick. "Is this a trophy from the Whomping Willow? Did you tear this off of it?"

"No!" Catlin retrieved the stick and pointed it upwards. "It's my temporary replacement wand."

"What? Where'd you get a replacement wand? We haven't been to Hogsmeade since before the accident," Goldie said hurriedly. "And how'd you even afford it? I mean, no offense but wands are expensive - and you were on bed rest by order of Madam Pomfrey. How did you get it!"

"It's not a real wand," Catlin replied, stuffing it back into her coat pocket. "It's just a branch I found under my bed. I forgot I'd put it there last year."

"What for?" Evelyn asked.

"I thought maybe something like this might happen so I saved it when I found it outside between classes one day."

"You thought something like this might happen?" Evelyn gaped. "And you didn't do anything about it? And why is that something you imagined happening?"

Catlin shrugged and pulled her coat tighter around her. "I don't know. I just felt like it would happen. Sometimes I get that … a feeling like something's going to happen."

"Okay, aside from that being really weird," Evelyn stressed, "what are you doing with it?"

"It looks like a wand! Right? I'm hoping just seeing it will be enough to fool the teachers into believing I have it until I can get it back."

"I see," Goldie said, smiling brightly. "That's a good idea!"

"Yeah, but you won't really need your wand if you're in the hospital wing. And if Madam Pomfrey catches you, she'll keep you longer just to prove a point. And say you do get out of the hospital wing soon. What if a teacher asks you to perform a spell? What then?"

"Then I'll pretend to do one and when it doesn't work, I'll say my wand's been acting up. And I may get marked down some but at least I won't have to explain that I lost my wand - or that those boys found it." Catlin pulled out a cellophane wrapped candy from her coat, unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth.

"I guess that'll work," Evelyn said, throwing glances over her shoulder. "Of course, you could always say that you're still suffering from a concussion. I'm sure they'd believe it." She shuddered and rubbed her arms to warm herself. "Come on, let's get going. The longer we wait, the more likely we'll get caught."

"Okay, let's go." Goldie turned on her heels and led the other two through the halls and toward the front of the school. They crept into the shadows, each one keeping a lookout for teachers doing their nightly rounds. They'd sneaked out enough times that this routine was fairly simple, and they'd gotten used to which teachers would be out and about in the middle of the night. They held their breath when rapid footsteps echoed on the foyer from the second floor, bounding down the staircase like a student late for class. But they saw no one come off the stairs even though the footsteps seemed to echo across the lobby.

"Ghosts?" Evelyn asked in near silence. "Or those stupid boys? I don't know how they manage to keep themselves hidden."

"Wait," Catlin said slowly. "Are the … the boys we saw that night the same ones who have my wand? The ones you're doing the homework for?"

"Yes," Evelyn and Goldie hissed at the same time.

"We've told you this," Evelyn stressed, looking exasperated. "I don't think your concussion makes you forget things like that so easily. I think you're just playing us now."

Clambering out from the shadows once they were sure the coast was clear, they hurried out the front door and onto the castle grounds.

"I wonder which castle ghost that was, if it was one?" Goldie mused as they escaped into the night, reaching for her wand.

"I'm just thankful it wasn't Peeves," Evelyn muttered, grabbing her own wand from her jacket. "He's so loud and obnoxious. He would've definitely gotten us caught."

"Maybe it was -" Catlin didn't get to finish her thought when the sound of the front doors opening again caught their attention. They turned to see a figure standing in the doorway, illuminated by a light that they held.

"Is that -" Goldie wheezed, almost tripping over herself. "Is that Filch? Quick - hide!"

The three girls scattered into the surrounding trees, crouching low into the brush. Goldie peeked around the branches of her tree to see two silhouettes emerge from the castle's front entry and head out in their direction.

"We're gonna get caught," she whispered, loud enough for the other two to hear. "We've gotta go."

All three of them slipped from their hiding spots, almost colliding with each other.

"This way," Evelyn said, pushing forward to take the lead. She sprinted blindly through the trees, followed by Goldie. Catlin was a few steps behind, weighed down by her scarf and snacks.

"This seems too familiar," she panted, getting vivid flashbacks to when she'd body slammed into the most aggressive tree known to wizardkind.

"Cat, I swear on Merlin's glorious and aged beard," Evelyn said sharply over her shoulder, "if you slow us down or get us caught, you're dead to me."

"I know, I know," Cat breathed, "I'm trying -" She cinched her coat tighter and did her best to keep up. "I wasn't expecting to be chased!"

"Wait - not this way," Goldie barked, grabbing Evelyn's shoulders and steering her to the side. "You're headed straight for the Whomping Willow!"