Chapter 41

The Hogsmeade meeting was today. We all decided it would be best if Harry stayed behind. And by 'all' I mean everyone but Harry. The rest of us decided to go so we could keep an eye on the other students going. Harry didn't like it at all. He was worried we would get hurt or taken. We also decided that once we got back, Harry would ask us all questions to make sure it was really us.

Harry watched us as we boarded the carriages to Hogsmeade. Hermione, Draco and Neville all got on one carriage while the twins, Ron and I got on another. We rode there in relative silence. We were all slightly on edge about the possible attacks. We had already agreed to split up with another person or two when we got there.

When we arrived, Ron went with Neville, Hermione went with Draco and I went with the twins. We had agreed to meat at the Hog's Head for lunch at twelve thirty. Our plan was to spread out and walk around keeping watch for mysterious activity. Hermione had insisted that we don't walk around alone though for obvious reasons.

So now I was stuck walking around with the twins. Fred and I had managed to avoid talking about the kiss with each other and I didn't want to start now. However, it seemed I didn't have much choice because of course as soon as we began our journey George had to bring it up to tease us.

"So Annie is my brother, the second best looking twin, a good kisser?" George teased.

"Oi! Everyone knows that I'm the better looking twin!" Fred joked to change the subject.

"No. It's obviously me!" George said.

"No, me!" Fred argued.

"Joanne, please tell Fred that I am the good looking twin." George said turning to me.

"Frankly, neither of you are that good looking." I said with a cheeky grin. I was only joking though because secretly I thought Fred, and by extension George, was very good looking. Wait, why did I single out Fred? I don't like him! Okay, even I can see I'm in denial. But I shouldn't like Fred. I'm not even from this time!

"You wound us!" George said with a hand on his heart.

"Well you did walk right into that one." I laughed.

"She's right you did." Fred told him.

"She said you weren't good looking as well!" He pointed out.

"Awe but she didn't mean it." Fred said as he swung his arm over my shoulder. He seemed to have momentarily forgotten that we had been acting awkwardly around each other.

I blushed when he didn't remove his arm but he didn't seem to notice what he was doing. Then Cedric saw me and ran over. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped when he saw Fred's arm on my shoulders and frowned for some reason. That is when Fred noticed. He jerked away and cleared his throat in embarrassment. George smirked at him.

"Hi Cedric." I said unenthusiastically. I was still mad about him not believing me.

"I just wanted to apologize." He said quickly. "I was wrong to say you were lying like I did. You wouldn't do that and I should have known it was the truth. Harry told me the rest of the story."

"It was pretty unbelievable but it was the truth." I sighed.

"So friends?" He held his hand out.

"Sure Cedric." I smiled and shook his hand. He grinned and went back to his other friends.

"I can't believe you forgave Diggory." Fred muttered with a deep frown.

"Well, believe it." I scowled. What's his problem?

...

The Hogsmeade trip actually went rather well. None of us had seen anything suspicious and we were soon back at the castle. Harry met us by the Lake like we agreed. He thought for a minute before asking Hermione, "How did Joanne and you become friends with Ron and I in first year?"

"We defeated a fully grown mountain troll together because Ron was mean to me." She said, grinning at the memory. I laughed at the astonished looks on the others faces.

"Great!" Harry grinned. "Why did Quirrell wear the turban?" He asked Draco.

"'Cause Voldemort was on the back of his head." Draco answered with a shiver. Harry and I had told them all what happened.

"Who did you have to kiss on Christmas?" He asked me with a cheeky grin.

"Fred." I answered. "Stupid enchanted mistletoe." Everyone just loved to bring it up and tease me about it.

Harry finished asking everyone questions and pulled out the map to check the other students. We needed to see if there were any polyjuiced death eaters around.

After Harry deemed that there were no death eaters or strangers in the school, we were finally able to relax. Everything went according to plan and everyone was okay.

...

It's been three months and more Hogsmeade trips have gone by without fail. As relieved as I was that nothing had happened, I was also nervous about what Voldemort could be planning. There was only one month left of school. The last Hogsmeade trip is also today. Surely something was going to go down. Unless Voldemort wants to wait for the summer holidays before snatching Harry up.

The DA has been going great. Everyone has learned so much. They may just be teenagers but I was confident they could defend themselves. They all had a huge amount of training drilled into them. Not just casting spells but also things like dodging and tactical dueling.

We were eating breakfast. Harry, Hermione and I were seriously on edge where as Ron and Draco were extremely jumpy. Neville was just extremely nervous and the twins seemed to be vastly unaffected. It annoys me how they never take anything seriously.

"Neville are you okay?" Luna asked sweetly. "You look very nervous." Luna and Neville had become quite close these last few months.

"I'm F-fine. Why would you s-say t-that?" He stuttered.

"Because you are all worried that Voldemort will show up and kidnap Harry." She replied. We all stared at her in shock.

"How did you know that?" Hermione spluttered.

"Was I not supposed to know that?" Luna asked innocently. "What else would make you all so nervous? You've been saying he is still alive the whole year and you have been training everyone. You obviously think he is going to make a move soon. It really isn't hard to put together."

Everyone gaped at her. Neville laughed at our amazed and dumb-struck faces. "Well she is in Ravenclaw." He told us. "She's smarter than what most people give her credit for."

We had all soon climbed into the carriages to get to Hogsmeade. We rode in complete silence. It was like the first trip all over again. Eventually we arrived and got in pairs. This time I was with Harry, who refused to stay behind this time. We agreed to meet outside Honeydukes in an hour. Usually we would only meet up once or twice throughout the day but this time we were slightly more paranoid.

An hour later Harry and I met up with everyone. So far so good. No one had seen anything to be worried about. We were about to split off again when it happened. There were a loud series of pops and about fifteen death eaters suddenly apparated into the street.

Villagers started screaming and in the chaos I saw the death eaters grabbing students and apparating away with them. I ran forward in an effort to stop them. "Joanne!" Hermione screamed and I turned around in time to see several death eaters apparate away with them. Dam it, they have Harry!

There were ten death eaters left but they didn't seem to be going anywhere, anytime soon. They were laughing and setting fire to places. A few were also heading towards me. I saw some other people getting attacked to. I wanted to help but I needed to get to Harry.

Then again, since they took so many people they probably won't be killing anyone till Voldemort is resurrected so I think I have time to try and stop this attack first. Besides, I don't even know if I can get there, I still haven't mastered apparating. I started firing stunning spells at them.

Three went down before they even notice what was happening. "Look at this little girl trying to be a hero." One of them teased as they pointed their wands at me. I saw people standing and watching out of the way as the seven remaining death eaters rounded on me. Gee, thanks for the help. What cowards.

Soon they were firing spells at me. I dodged and blocked for a while before moving into the offensive and firing a quick combination of stunning and disarming spells. They were growing tired but I could go on for hours because of my abnormal magical core. Soon they were all unconscious.

The villagers gazed at me in amazement. Then twenty Aurors apparated in. I saw one of them casting apparation wards and mentally cursed. They looked at me, then at the ten unconscious death eaters in front of me. "Well, it's about time you got here!" I burst out. Of course they showed up after the death eaters were beaten. I had been delayed by five minutes. I hope everyone is okay.

...

Neville's POV

We had been apparated to a grave yard. Based on what Joanne was abel to tell us, Voldemort must be performing the ritual to get his body back now. I could see a cauldron that was bubbling loudly. The death eaters had managed to kidnap a lot of students. Myself and around thirty students had been tied to grave stones. I didn't see Joanne anywhere so they must not have taken her.

I looked over at Luna, who was tied to the grave stone next to me. She looked scared so I took her hand comfortingly in mine. She smiled weekly at me. Goyle senior started saying the ritual. "Bone of the father...unknowingly given..." He said as he levitated a bone from a grave and into the bubbling caldron. "...Flesh of the servant...willingly given..." Crabbe senior chopped of his hand and it fell into the caldron. "...Blood of the enemy...unwillingly taken..." Goyle used a ritual knife to cut into Harry's arm. He flicked the blood off the knife and into the caldron. Finally, they dropped something that looked like a baby, into the caldron.

...