Alice

"Should have an owl from father anytime now. He had to go to the hearing to tell them about my arm…about how I couldn't use it for three months." I watched Emily's bubbling smile faded, and Ron's eyes narrow as Draco, Crabbe and Goyle approach us. "I really wish I could hear the great hairy moron trying to defend himself. 'There's no 'am in 'im, 'onest!' That Hippogriff's as good as dead."

Malfoy as his friends shared a laugh, and pretended to notice us for the first time. "What are you lot doing here?" staring behind us at the house he continued, "Suppose you'd love to live here, wouldn't you, Weasley? Dreaming about having your own bedroom? I heard your family all sleeps in one room! Is that true?" Emily and I latched on to Ron's arms to keep him from doing anything stupid.

"Leave him to me." Harry whispered from under his invisibility cloak.

"We were just discussing your friend Hagrid. Just trying to imagine what he's saying to the Committee for the disposal of Dangerous Creatures. Do you think he'll cry when they cut off his Hippogriff's. .." SMACK! mud came flying at the back of Malfoy's head.

"What the?" Ron, Emily and I were bent over laughing as hard as we could. While Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle spun on the spot, staring wildly around.

"What's wrong Malfoy? Ruin your hair?" I called out bursting into another fit of laughter. It almost felt nice being the one taunting him for once.

"What was that? Who did that?" Draco asked rubbing at his hair.

"Well it's haunted up here isn't it? I suppose it must have been a ghost." Little Emily chirped in her innocent voice, but Harry couldn't resist a second go at them, so he hauled another mud lump in their direction catching a bit of Crabb and Goyle on the way.

"It came from over there! " Mafloy cried pointing into what seemed to be open air. Crabbe charged forward to where Malfoy pointed, then it looked like Harry took a swing at him with a stick, or rather the open air did. Crabbe thought it was Ron who hit him so he headed off in his direction; he must have tripped on Harry's invisibility cloak because in the next second the cloak slid off his face. Everyone saw him, well his head. Draco screamed and ran off with Crabbe and Goyle trailing behind.

"Harry! You need to get back to the castle now! If Draco tells anyone you'll be in so much trouble!" I shouted.

"Don't worry Alice, I'm a Potter! Trouble's part of the job! See you all at dinner then."

"That's what I'm afraid of." I mumbled as he recovered his head, and presumably headed off to the castle.

"Should we go back too?" Emily asked nervously. "I mean Harry did buy a lot of stuff at Zonko's today, what if he gets caught with it? Someone should be there to say they just brought it back for him."

"You're right." I said as we headed away from the Shrieking Shack. We made our way to the coaches, and rode back to the Castle. Standing in the Entrance Hall we saw Neville.

"Hey Neville!" I said as he passed by.

"Oh Hello Alice, Ron, Emily."

"Neville have you seen Harry anywhere? We wanted to give him some stuff we brought back." I asked, feeling guilty even though I wasn't really lying to Neville, I was planning on unloading some of my sugar quills on him.

"Yeah, uh I just saw Professor Snape take him down to his office. So you might want to wait."

"Oh, thanks Neville." I called as he walked off. "He's dead for sure."

"Come on. I'm sure malfoy told Snape about seeing Harry, but we were at the Shrieking Shack. It could have been a ghost like Emily said right? Suppose Malfoy was just so scared of being up there that he imagined it. Harry's smart enough to think of that." Ron said.

"What about the stuff from Zonko's?" Emily reminded us.

"We just say we got him that stuff ages ago." Ron answered.

"I don't know Ron. Professor Snape might not believe…"

"Might not believe what? That Harry's sister and best mate bring him back stuff when we got to Hogsmeade? He'd be stupid to think we wouldn't!"

"I suppose it's worth a shot." I sighed. "But we're going to have to hurry."

"I'll take your stuff Alice, you can probably run faster without it." Emily said holding her already bag filled arms out to Ron and I. "And I can give you your stuff back at dinner Ron." We handed our bags off to her and set off at a run. Ron was a much faster than I was, but he didn't know the right turns to get through the dungeons, so we kept a pretty even pace. By the time we reached Severus' office, we were both out of breath and I was bracing myself on Ron's shoulder as we gasped for air. Severus was standing at his desk glaring at the Maurader's Map, While Remus and Harry seemed to be sharing some sort of secret knowing glance, they all turned to us when we entered the Office.

"We gave Harry that stuff!" Ron blurted out.

"Yeah…We…we got it at Zonko's ages ago!" I lied. I had always been bad a lying, and all four of them knew that I was lying, but for some reason, Remus covered for us.

"Well, that seems to clear that up!" he said with a smile clapping his hands together. "I'll take this Severus." He folded up the map and placed it inside his robe pocket. "Harry, Ron please come with me, I'd like to talk to you about your vampire essays." As Remus passed me he leaned down and whispered in my ear. "I'll be back to discuss this with you." And the three of them left, leaving me in the office alone with Severus. I'm in trouble. I thought.

"Severus, I…"

"Sit down, and don't say anything."