The night was cold, the air heavy, as he moved slowly through the grounds, following the footprints in the snow. They were large for children, but not for the older students or the teachers. He did not recognize the smell of the one who made them, but they led towards the forbidden forest, unlike the majority which seemed to circle the grounds aimlessly.

But whoever had made them had not gone into the forest. They stopped a stone's throw away, where some sort of activity seemed to have occurred. There were mounds of ice in the snow with carrots and scarves, as if someone had melted some snowmen. The prints then turned back towards the castle.

Artemis shook his head and walked into the forest. The branches made the snow on the ground irregular and he had to be careful to quietly tread on the leaves and sticks in the dry patches. The forest had many strange smells, but other than that of Hagrid next to none that came from humans.

There was a rustling sound to his left. He turned and saw a pair of glowing eyes staring at him. The fur on the back of his neck stood up and he hunched over, ready to pounce.

The creature came forward. It was a huge cat, at least three times Artemis' size, with messy ginger fur. Artemis' eyes followed it as it walked passed him, pausing for an instant to give a grunt-like meow in his direction, and wander off.

Artemis breathed a sigh of relief. But it was just another fruitless night.

"Black, where the hell are you?"/

The Marauders Map showed the exact position of every person in Hogwarts and many passages through and out of the castle that even Filch did not know about, and yet Mina disappeared from it regularly on the seventh floor.

Harry had gone to the spot she disappeared once and found nothing but a wall. He asked Fred and George if they knew of anything strange there. They knew that there was a giant storage room that sometimes appeared, but little more than that. When they owned the map they never noticed that the storage room was not on it and were as surprised as Harry by its omission.

They took Harry there one day, impressing him with the sheer size of the room. What it was Mina was storing they had no idea, but it no longer bothered Harry as much as it had. It wasn't a way for Sirius Black to get into Hogwarts./

"Listen, Mina. You should go to Hogsmeade this weekend."

Mina raised an eyebrow. "I was already planning on doing that, Artemis."

"Yes. But I don't mean for pleasure. I mean to watch on Harry Potter."

"Why?"

"Hogsmeade is not as well protected as Hogwarts. He is a much easier target there, making it more likely that he'll get attacked."

"I thought you were sure that he was somewhere on the grounds."

"I'm having so much trouble finding a hint of him that I'm beginning to wonder if I was wrong. Right now it's just as likely that he is in Hogsmeade as here. It's best to be safe."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Watch him while he's there. Follow him around and be ready in case he runs into trouble."

Mina rolled her eyes. "No vacations or weekends off on this job, are there?"

"Not when the bad guys love weekends so much."/

Mina was among the first students to make it to Hogsmeade that day and waited for Harry to arrive at the end of the path between the school and the village.

But Harry did not show up. Neither did Hermione Granger. Only Ron Weasley came. Mina followed him instead into Honeydukes, where they both looked at sweets to buy.

Mina thought that Ron was possibly going to meet someone there since he lingered for so long, but he turned around as if tapped on the shoulder while considering a dragon flavored taffy, looked as though he was talking to someone even though no one was there, and then walked out.

Mina followed Ron, who still looked like he was talking to himself, to the Three Broomsticks where he ordered two butterbeers. Mina again thought that he was meeting someone there, but he put the second butterbeer under the table as if to save it for later.

Ron then headed, still alone, to the Shrieking Shack, an old house that had the reputation of being haunted. Mina could take it no more. She had to know what Ron was doing and more importantly where Harry was, so she approached Ron.

"Hey, Ron. D'you know where Harry is?"

Ron looked taken aback for a moment, but then said "Harry's not here. He's not allowed into Hogsmeade cause he never got the form signed."

"Not allowed?"

"He's back at the castle."

Mina muttered a curse under her breath. All that planning and Harry couldn't even get to Hogsmeade in the first place! And if he was at Hogwarts that's where the danger would be. With several teachers also in the village security at the school would be lessened from its usual standard.

She turned to leave and head back to the castle, but not far in front of her was an unwelcome sight, Draco Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle.

"I should be getting an owl from my dad soon." Malfoy was saying as he spoke of the Buckbeak's hearing at the Ministry of Magic. "That hippogriff's as good as dead." he concluded.

"You'd better hope not, Malfoy." Mina spat. "I still might use you as a bludger."

The Slytherins stopped. Malfoy in particular looked flustered, but regained his composure after a few moments.

"Come within a meter of me, mudblood, and I'll make sure that you get expelled."

"Wash your mouth, you slimy little git!" Ron yelled, coming up beside Mina.

"Crabbe, Goyle, the mud blood and the Weasel need to be taught a lesson." The two of them lumbered forward menacingly.

Ron gulped, but Mina smiled. With her new skills she could beat those thick trolls without her wand or her soldier powers. Malfoy was next.

But she never got to fight, for Malfoy suddenly cried "ugh!" and all eyes turned towards him. He was wiping snow out of the back of his hair.

Another snowball hit Malfoy, then several others hit Crabbe and Goyle. Mina and the Slytherins looked around to see who was throwing them, but there was no one there. Ron laughed loudly.

"Very haunted out here, isn't it?"

Malfoy pointed frantically at a spot on the ground. "There!" Crabbe ran at the spot, but stumbled forward as if hit in the back. He then charged at the only people he could see, Mina and Ron. Something tripped him and he fell.

And appearing above him was the head of Harry Potter.

Mina and the Slytherins all screamed, and the latter ran away.

Harry's head disappeared again, but Ron went to where he had been standing.

"Harry! You'd better run for it! If Malfoy tells anyone-you'd better get back to the castle quick!"

"See you later." the disembodied voice of Harry said somberly.

"Look," Ron said to Mina, "Harry'll be in so much trouble. We've got to get back there and say that we got everything for him."

"Right." She ran off, leaving Ron behind. At the first call of "Hey! Wait for me!" she doubled back and grabbed Ron by the arm, dragging him all the way back to the castle.

At her full speed she could have overtaken Malfoy, but dragging Ron slowed her down even though she dragged Ron faster than he could run. Ron's first instinct on getting back was to head to Snape's office, as Snape would be the one Malfoy would go to.

Sure enough, Professors Snape and Lupin were interrogating Harry in Snape's office. Mina pulled Ron to the doorway of the office where he exclaimed exhaustedly "I got that stuff for Harry at Zonko's-ages ago!"

This satisfied Lupin, who led the three students away from the furious Snape to the great hall, which was empty with most of the student population in Hogsmeade.

Once out of earshot of anyone else Lupin allowed the anger to enter his features. He held an old peace of parchment to Harry's face.

"I don't want to hear explanations." Lupin said. "I happen to know that this map was confiscated by Mr. Filch many years ago."

Harry's and Ron's mouth's dropped open at the fact that Lupin knew it was a map, but Mina was just confused. She gathered that Harry used the map to get to Hogsmeade I spite of the danger, but she had never heard of a map like Lupin described. Her confusion was evident enough to Lupin that he realized she knew nothing about it and did not include her in his criticisms.

They started walking after Lupin had left, the boys looking guilty and depressed.

"Thanks," Harry muttered.

"No problem." Mina resisted the urge to tell Harry that he had been stupid. He was figuring that out on his own. "How did you become invisible?"

"Invisibility cloak."

"You have an invisibility cloak! For real!"

Mina continued to ask questions about the cloak for a while. It explained much about how Harry and his friends had found out so much about the Chamber of Secrets the year before and even gone into it to destroy the monster. Some questions Harry answered fully while others he evaded.

Mina did not realize that they had been walking to the Gryffindor common room until they were by the portrait of the fat lady. Hermione was outside it, having been looking for the boys in the common room. She had terrible news.

"Hagrid lost his case. Buckbeak's going to be executed."