A/N: Hello good readers! I have returned to bring you the prologue (and aftermath) to the Hogsmeade trip. Don't worry, that will make sense to you later, or I hope it will. This is the shortest chapter I have written so far, but it is mainly an intro to the next one. Also, we get a introduction to a certain greasy haired potions professor that we all know and love/hate. Please, don't let me keep you, enjoy!

Chapter 10: What Just Happened

On Saturday morning, Harry packed the Invisibility Cloak in his bag, slipped the Marauder's Map in his pocket and went down to breakfast with everyone else. Hermione continuously gave him worried looks and he was sure he spotted Ron throwing glances at the two of them every so often.

When everyone else gathered in the Entrance Hall ready to go to Hogsmeade, he and Hermione made sure to say goodbye to each other louder than was really necessary. Harry then made his way up the marble staircase, while Hermione exited through the front doors.

He swiftly made his way to the third floor, pulling the old sheet of parchment out of his pocket as he went. He ducked behind the One-Eyed Witch and smoothed the map out in front of him. To his alarm, a tiny dot labelled Neville Longbottom was moving towards him.

Acting fast, he drew his wand and tapped the statue, muttering, "Dissendium." He threw his bag into the newly opened passage, but before he could enter, he noticed on the map that Neville was right round the corner.

Biting back a curse, he sealed the entrance again, pocketed the map and bent down, pretending to tie his shoes.

"Harry!" panted Neville, he'd obviously been in a hurry, "I was hoping to catch up to you. You're not going to Hogsmeade either are you?"

"Um, no I was just heading to..." Harry cast his mind about for a good enough lie, "The Library."

'The Library' he wondered, 'Merlin, Hermione really is rubbing off on me'

"The Library? Oh, that reminds me! Have you done that review for Lupin yet?" asked Neville.

"No," lied Harry (He and Hermione had finished it the day it was set), "That's why I was going to the Library."

"Great! We can do it together, I still don't really understand why Redcaps..." he cut off abruptly with an audible gulp, his eyes fixed on a point just behind Harry.

Harry turned and found himself face-to-face with their least favourite teacher.

"Potter?" Snape spat, "Longbottom? What are you doing here?" His black eyes flicked to the area around them, lingering slightly on the statue of the One-Eyed Witch. "An odd place to meet," he commented, his eyes finally settling on Harry.

"We weren't meeting here," said Harry staring defiantly back at Snape, "We just... met here."

"Indeed?" said Snape, "You do have a habit of turning up in the most unexpected places Potter... and you are rarely there for no reason."

"Is there something special about this place, Professor?" asked Harry, feigning ignorance. He had a sinking feeling that Snape knew exactly what was special about this place.

The potions master's eyes narrowed so slightly you could barely notice they had at all, "You tell me Potter. Why exactly did you... meet here?"

Harry's expression remained neutral, "I was on my way to the Library."

Snape continued to bore into him with his eyes, "Then perhaps you should continue on your way, instead of wasting my time here."

Harry nodded stiffly and led Neville off down the corridor. Just before they turned the corner, he looked back and saw Snape running a hand over the One-Eyed Witch's head, examining it closely.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief when they were out of ear shot and turned to Neville, who was gaping at him in awe. "What?" asked Harry, perplexed by the other boy's look.

"How do you do that?" he asked, not bothering to conceal his amazement.

"Do what?" he said, frowning a little.

"Stand up to him like that. I... sometimes, he scares me so much I can't even speak properly."

Harry shook his head, trying to stifle a chuckle, "Neville it's not that I wasn't scared. I just didn't let him know that I was scared. If he thinks you're not scared, then he doesn't act as scary... does that make sense?"

It was obvious that it didn't really make sense to Neville, his face was scrunched up in confusion, "So... you were scared? Back there, I mean."

"Terrified," replied Harry truthfully, 'Terrified that he'd find out what that statue was and what I left inside it'

Harry managed to lose Neville just outside the Library, by saying that he'd left his bag somewhere (A truth) and that he had to go back and get it for his homework (A lie).

He felt bad about leaving his friend alone, but he knew that Hermione would be worried sick if he kept her waiting any longer.

Pausing once to check on the map that the dot labelled Severus Snape was safely back in his office, Harry hurried back to the passage and began his journey to the Honeydukes cellar.

Neville watched Harry leave for a second, wondering why his friend had been acting so strangely. In the end, he shook it off and entered the Library, resolving to find a table while he waited for Harry to return.

While he wandered the rows of books, he caught sight of a familiar blonde girl sat alone in the corner. Her dirty blond hair hung down her face and she had stuck her wand behind her ear for safe-keeping, while she bent over a long roll of parchment.

He jogged over to her and took a seat across from her. "Hullo Luna," he greeted.

She looked up at him in surprise, obviously she hadn't noticed him sit down. "Hello Neville," she replied, "Are you having any more luck with the trolls?"

"Er..." Neville began, not sure what to say. A few days ago he had confided in Luna about his fear of having to wait with a group of trolls whenever he wanted to enter Gryffindor tower. Her advice had been to sing to them. According to her, all trolls could be soothed by a talented tenor.

"Yeah," he lied, smiling, "It... really helped, thanks."

He hadn't even bothered to try. He should have known he would get something like that from her. He could have gone to his other friends, but he was worried that, if he'd asked them, Harry and Hermione would have told him to knock the trolls out with their own clubs. That seemed to be the way they did things.

She smiled brightly at his thanks and returned to her essay. Neville wasn't sure how to continue the conversation, so he decided to get started on his own work. He had just spread out a fresh piece of parchment and dipped his quill in ink, when Luna spoke again, "Where's Harry? He can't go to the village either, can he?" She didn't take her eyes of her work.

Neville shook his head, "No, he had to go back to Gryffindor Tower. He forgot his bag."

She frowned at the parchment and said simply, "That's odd."

Neville raised an eyebrow, partly wondering what she meant, partly wondering how she could call anything odd. "Why... why is it odd?" he asked.

"It's strange," she replied.

Neville frowned, fairly sure that she'd just given him the same statement, but replaced the word odd with strange. He opened his mouth to ask again, when she decided to continue. "Harry doesn't seem like he'd forget something like that," she said to the parchment, "Maybe he had another reason to leave, but didn't want to tell you what it was."

That answer puzzled Neville. True, Harry wasn't a forgetful person, but he also didn't think Harry would lie to him. Then, he remembered how shifty Harry had been acting when he'd found him on the third floor. He thought about the strange confrontation between Harry and Snape, how they both seemed to know something that he didn't. He thought about how Harry had practically fled from the Entrance Hall after Hermione had left.

"I don't think... but, why would he lie? Where would he need to be?"

Luna shrugged, "I don't know, I bet Hermione would though, she always seems to know where he is."

"She's in Hogsmeade..." he said, still unable to figure out where Harry could possibly want to run off to. He shook his head. "No, I'm sure he was just... in a rush and he... left his bag in the common room," he said firmly.

She just shrugged again and said, "You've known him longer than me." She finally decided to look up at him and address him properly, "While we wait for him, do you want to help me with my Herbology? Professor Sprout didn't seem to like my last answers very much. I still don't know what I did wrong, I put down everything I knew about Dirigible Plums..."

The two friends settled into relatively comfortable conversation and, for the most part, managed to forget about Harry's odd behaviour. There were more than a few awkward silences between them, mostly when Luna made one of her strange remarks that Neville didn't know how to respond to, or when Neville said something without thinking and tripped over his words to correct himself.

They had been sat together for a while and gotten a fair bit of work done, when Neville finally remembered the friend they'd been waiting for.

"I wonder where Harry got to?" He asked.

Luna looked up at his question and her eyes widened a little. She seemed to have forgotten about him as well.

"I'm going to go look for him," he decided and started packing up his work. He absently noticed that Luna was doing the same.

"I'm coming too," she answered his unspoken question, "Harry might have gotten into trouble. I hear that's usually the case with him."

Neville nodded in agreement, even he had picked up on the Trio's innate ability to break every rule ever written, every time they stepped outside.

They first searched Gryffindor Tower, but Neville emerged after a few moments and informed Luna that, not only was Harry not in there, but he hadn't been since breakfast.

They next decided to search the area the area where Neville had met Harry earlier. On their way to the Third Floor they found him, but he wasn't alone.

"Out of the way you two!" snapped Snape and the two instinctively jumped to the side.

The Head of Slytherin was striding towards the dungeons with a triumphant expression on his face and a solemn Harry trailing behind him. Neville opened his mouth to say something, but Harry gave the tiniest shake of his head and followed his captor silently.

Neville and Luna just watched the pair leave, before Neville made to go after them. Luna grabbed his arm to stop him. "No," she said, "We'll just make it worse. We should find Hermione, she'll probably know something."

Neville was going to point out again that Hermione was in Hogsmeade and couldn't possibly know what had happened, but the little Ravenclaw was already dragging him towards the Entrance Hall.

They had barely entered when the front doors burst open and a frantic Hermione rushed towards them, looking as if she'd just run a marathon.

"Hermione," said Neville, "We were just looking for..."

"Where's Harry?" she interrupted, her eyes filled with a fire that Neville recalled only too well. It was the same look she'd worn when she'd put him in a full-body-bind in first year.

"Um... well he was... I mean, we were..." he spluttered, quivering under her gaze.

"He's with Snape," explained Luna, looking quite calm considering the situation, "I think they were going to his office. You see..."

But Hermione had already pushed past them and was rushing towards the dungeons at breakneck pace.

Neville stared after her for a minute then turned to Luna, to see her looking just as bemused as he felt (Although, Luna always seemed to look bemused).

"What just happened?" he asked her.

A/N: The next chapter will answer Neville's question and will follow Harry and Hermione through their time in Hogsmeade. I feel a bit bad for making Harry leave Neville like that, but it had to happen. I'd love to hear an opinion on the interaction between Harry and Snape. It's a bit different from the one in the books. Anyway, thank you for reading. Until next time, good readers.