Chapter 37

As soon as dinner was over Hermione and I snuck out the castle doors in dark coloured muggle cloths. I had a backpack slung over my shoulder to carry what we brought back. We took the whomping willow passage to the shrieking shack and exited into hogsmeade. It was very dark in the deserted alleyways. Also deathly quiet and I felt slightly unnerved as Hermione and I made our way to the side of the road. I couldn't help but feel like someone was watching us but I looked around and saw no one. I held out my right arm and with a bang the night bus appeared.

I hope we didn't wake anyone. If anyone looked out their window... I mean two students getting on a bright purple bus is kind of hard to miss. Hermione and I boarded the bus. I handed over the money and we made our way over to an empty bed and sat down. "You might want to hold on." I warned Hermione. We jerked forward with a bang as the bus continued its journey. I clung on tightly to a rail as Hermione and I were knocked about.

The bus stopped suddenly and I lost my grip on the railing and flew forward. But I didn't land on the floor. I felt someone under me and heard a moan. I looked down but there was no one there. In fact, it looked like I was floating slightly above the ground. I reached out and grabbed a piece of invisible fabric, pulling it with me as I stood up. Harry's invisibility cloak was pulled off the person who was still on the floor. I narrowed my eyes angrily.

"Fred! What the hell are you doing here?!" I hissed at him.

"I needed to make sure you didn't- I mean you and Hermione didn't run into any trouble." He said carefully as he stood up. I stuffed the invisibility cloak in my backpack before glaring at him.

"Oh someone's in trouble alright but it isn't us!" I told him menacingly. "Go back to Hogwarts!"

"I'm here now, I may as well help you guys." He said.

"Just let him come." Hermione sighed.

"He'll blow our cover." I told her.

"What cover?" Hermione asked exasperated.

"You know what I meant." I snapped before sighing and saying in embarrassment. "I've seen too many spy movies, okay?" Hermione laughed and I joined in.

"What's a moo-vi?" Fred interrupted us.

"Movie." Hermione corrected. "It's a-"

"You can explain later." I interrupted her before turning to Fred. "I guess you're right. You're already here, but you have to do whatever Hermione and I say."

"I will." Fred agreed. "So what's the plan?"

Umm Crap! We don't have a plan. "'Mione the plan." I told her with a meaningful look. I didn't want Fred to know we didn't have a plan.

"The plan on what we are going to do?" She asked, stalling.

"Yeah, that plan." I said.

"Yep."

"So you can explain to Fred our well thought out plan." I said.

"Of course."

"Totally."

"Then we can initiate the well thought out plan that we came up with." She said.

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

We both sighed and turned to Fred before saying simultaneously. "Umm, We don't have a plan."

"Oh, ladies. What would you do without me?" Fred asked dramatically. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Our plans never work anyway." I told him. "I think we're better off winging it."

"So which muggle University are we going to then?" Fred asked.

Hermione opened her mouth to tell him but I interrupted. "Pigfarts." I said with a strait face. "It's on Mars." I used to love A Very Potter Musical. I made a mental note to make them watch it when it is made in the future. Hermione and Fred were looking at me as if I had just told them that I wanted to turn into a butterfly and live in Antarctica. Then again, in the wizarding world I suppose that is entirely possible. I couldn't keep a strait face any longer and I burst into a fit of giggles. I then tumbled off the bed because I had forgotten to hold on. Stupid night bus. I got back on the bed we were sitting on.

"What's Pigfarts?" Hermione asked.

"It's a future thing. You wouldn't understand." I explained. "Maybe one day I'll tell you about Rumbleroar. He's the headmaster lion. Who can talk." They kept looking at me funny. "Never mind." I sighed.

"Anyway..." Hermione said slowly, getting us back on track.

We discussed where we were going and we soon arrived. It was such a relief to get off that blasted night bus. It took me a few seconds to regain my balance as my feet touched down on solid, unmoving ground. I could have kissed it but, you know, germs and stuff. I cast simple notice-me-not charms on us and we made our way round the back of the building to a window. "Alohomora." Hermione muttered and the window jerked open slightly. Fred gave me a leg up and I climbed through. After Hermione had climbed through Fred followed. We were in a huge lecture hall. I lead the others through the door and down the corridors looking for a science lab. Fred was taking up the rear with Hermione in the middle.

I soon found a science lab and after unlocking the door, made my way inside. The others followed and Hermione and I started rifling through the various chemicals to find the right ingredients. Fred didn't know what any of them were so he just sat on a desk and watched us. We easily found everything and I carefully placed them in my backpack after making sure they were sealed properly. I didn't want anything to leak.

We climbed out the window we used to gain entry and I locked it again with another spell. We were about to go round the building to the street when we heard voices and froze. Fred pulled us behind some bushes as two men in wizard robes walked round the corner. "I think the trace made a mistake." One wizard was saying to the other. "I mean, why would a Hogwarts student be using the unlocking charm at a muggle school in the middle of the night?" Oh no! I forgot that Hermione had the trace on her. I just got so used to not worrying about it because it wasn't on me. By the looks of understanding and horror on the others faces, I assumed they had come to the same explanation as me.

"Well as Aurors, it's our job to check it out." The other said. God, how could we be so careless?! If only I'd thought to bring the invisibility cloak and-. Okay. I'm an idiot. We do have the invisibility cloak! Fred brought it to try and follow us.

I unzipped my bag as quickly and quietly as possible and pulled out the invisibility cloak. The others looked at it in solace. Hermione looked like she would melt with relief. I threw it over us and we stood up. We made our way carefully round the Aurors. The cloak was only just big enough to cover all three of us. Fred had to bend his knees slightly so he wasn't to tall and we were all closer than what would be considered comfortable, but we were completely invisible and for that, I was thankful.

Once we were down the street and out of sight, we took the cloak off and ran. We made sure we were a good few blocks away and were out of sight of the University before stopping. "That was a close one." Hermione panted.

"Yeah, good thing I had the foresight to bring the cloak." Fred teased. "As I said before, what would you do without me?"

"Foresight?" I laughed. "You brought the cloak so you could stalk us."

"Details, details." He muttered dismissively as I summoned the night bus.

When we got back to school I was exhausted. And I wasn't the only one. Hermione looked like she would fall asleep any second. We split off from Fred in the common room and Hermione and I made our way slowly up to our dorm. I checked the clock on our nightstand. It was two in the morning. I almost groaned at the thought of getting up in the morning tomorrow. Or today I suppose. I was absolutely not a morning person. I didn't even bother to change, only kicked my shoes off and burrowed under my covers. I saw Hermione do the same. I slowly drifted off into a deep sleep.

...

Despite my thoughts from the previous night, I did manage to climb out of bed this morning. It took a lot of coaxing from Hermione and maybe a stinging hex or two but I got up in the end. After getting ready, I tiredly made my way to breakfast.

Hermione and I were some of the last to arrive and I quickly piled food on my plate and dug in before it disappeared. The mail came and just as I thought, Hedwig flew in carrying a small package. She dropped it in front of me and I petted her and gave her a piece of my bacon before she flew off back to the owlery.

After breakfast Hermione and I headed strait to the Ravenclaw library. We had set up a make shift potion brewing bench top in there so we could brew in peace. It was on the way to the Gryffindor tower where we bumped into Cedric. I hadn't talked to him in months. I've been busy. Of course we saw each other in the first DA meaning but we didn't really talk much. Or at all...

"Joanne!" He exclaimed. "Can I talk to you?"

"Now really isn't a good time Cedric." I told him.

"Please." He said.

"Hermione, I'll meet you in the common room." I told her before following Cedric to an empty classroom. I discreetly cast some silencing charms to ensure that no one would over hear because I assumed that he wanted to talk about what happened in the holidays.

"I figured it out." He told me once the door was closed. "I figured out your secret."

"Sure you have Cedric." I said sarcastically. There is no way he figured out that I'm the heir of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw from the future. There's just no way.

"You're hunting pieces of You-know-who's soul." He said. My mouth dropped open in surprise.

"How do you know that?!" I asked in shock. Crap, I forgot to deny in first. Well it's too late now.

"I heard Ron and Harry talking about it and figured that's what you were doing in the forest." He explained. I'm going to murder them! Idiots! At least he only knows a small part of whats going on.

"Well you got me." I sighed before quickly saying, "Can't get anything past Cedric. Got to go bye." I made for the door but he grabbed my arm.

"That's not all I heard." He said.

"What else did you hear?" I asked. This is very, very bad.

"You're from the future." He stated. "What are you doing in this time? What's the future like?"

"I'll explain another time but I can't keep Hermione waiting." I said before jerking out of his grip and rushing out of the room and down the hall.

I ran all the way to the Gryffindor common room and found Hermione waiting for me on a couch. I took her into the Ravenclaw Library and explained what happened. "Harry and Ron are so dead." She exclaimed.

"Definitely." I agreed. Then we stopped talking and started brewing the potion. We needed to get it done before the full moon tonight so, much to Hermione's regret, we were skipping classes today. This was more important.

...