A/N: Well, I'm back. So here's the next part. Enjoy while you can.
The day had finally come. The day to leave. The day to go to Hogsmeade. Ginny was terrified. Ron couldn't care less. Cho was still, well, mourning over Cedric, and that didn't help. Draco was complaining about everything-and then some. Fred and George were chucking lollies out the window of the bus, to parents and siblings outside. Harry was extremely happy-no more Dursleys for an extended period of time. Hermione wasn't too happy-no REAL classes for eight weeks. "My grades will fall!" she had exclaimed when her parents told her to have fun.
The bus trip was long. Unnecessarily long, considering Hogsmeade was only 30 minutes away from Hogwarts. But then, they weren't exactly going to Hogsmeade…
"The music on this thing is terrible!" Draco complained, "I want to hear the Spice Girls!" Draco, of course, didn't quite know what they were-only that they were Muggles, and on this whole Hogsmeade stint they were supposed to be living like Muggles.
"Malfoy, we are NOT listening to the Spice Girls. Now go and read your magazines." Harry said, annoyed, as he went back to reading yet another Quidditch book.
Eventually, after travelling on an extremely bumpy road for about 20 minutes, the bus stopped.
"Are we here?" Draco asked, impatient to sit on an unmoving chair and have a nice, long drink.
One of the teachers at the front of the bus got up. "Now, everyone. Quiet!" she said. "Make sure you take everything out of the bus. You can't leave anything behind."
Hermione, already up with all her stuff, gave her seat a quick once-over again. Then she checked everybody else's seats. "Harry, you left this string behind!" she called. "Malfoy, your magazine." Hermione picked up a Dolly magazine and waved it around. "Is this yours, Cho?" Cho turned red and stuffed the magazine in her bag.
Finally, everyone was out of the bus. It started to rain. "Damn!" Ron muttered, "My japara is at the bottom of my bag!" Hermione got out her wand, and started to say a spell.
"Miss Granger, please get rid of that wand!" one of the teachers said. Hermione looked around guiltily, and slid her wand back into her pocket. "Sorry Ron, you'll have to get it out yourself. Anyway, it serves you right for putting it there." She turned around to look for everyone else-Harry had his stuff all over the ground, Ginny was putting her excess baggage in the troopie, and Fred, George, Cho and Fleur were all standing off to one side, talking. There were a whole lot of other witches and wizards, too. Hermione wondered where they'd come from. Draco was also at the troopie, whining to the driver, trying to convince her to let him ride in it.
"No, Mr Malfoy, you'll have to travel with the rest of them." The driver said. "Now put your japara on because you'll be soaked." Draco sighed and pulled his japara out-it was a school one.
"It stinks!" he wrinkled his nose. "I'm not wearing that!"
Meanwhile, everyone was wondering where they were-they had been told they were going to be living in Hogsmeade in a Muggle environment. It then occurred to Hermione that Hogsmeade was a totally wizarding community. So they would be going somewhere else then, somewhere 8 hours away from Hogwarts.
"Attention!" one of the teachers said. "You're going to walk into Marshmeade now. Be careful of slippery rocks and things like that."
"Ahh." Hermione said to herself. "That's what this place is called. I knew we were going to Hogsmeade!"
Ron sighed. "Do we really have to?" he whispered to Hermione.
"Yes. Now come on, let's go." She said back, and set off.
Soon Ron's long legs outstripped Hermione, and she was left with Ginny to walk at the back of the procession that was walking the 5 kilometres into Marshmeade.
They all sighed in relief when they saw the big gate and the shed. A number of shrieks sounded from some of the other witches-the ones with the heavy makeup and skimpy robes, Hermione thought.
It was then they were told they still had a bit to go before they got to the village.
"Great. My feet are sore and I'm tired." Hermione said, but picked up her bag again and kept going. Finally, after going down a huge hill, over a bridge (20km/hour, no bicycles) and up another hill, they got to the village. It looked spectacularly uninteresting, and the design was, well…interesting.
Going through a small gate in a fence, they came to what Hermione assumed to be the amphitheatre. It had tall poles encircling it, with a small stage at the bottom and tiered seating. The only problem was that it was all outside. Harry plonked himself down on a seat, not caring if there was mud on it or not. Cho, Draco and Fleur were more careful. Fred and George sat together, laughing the whole time and patting the dogs that were there. Hermione sat next to Harry, seeing not much room anywhere else. Ginny sat by herself to one side, not knowing where to go. Ron decided to go sit next to Fleur, and was welcomed heartily.
They were talked to by a man named Mr McNeil, and they were told five very important rules, which they discovered later, were very easy to break.
They were: Take off your shoes before entering buildings and put them back on again when you got out.
Don't go out of the village after dark
Don't use magic-under any circumstances
Don't go out of the boundaries without a teacher, and
Stay in your house after 9 pm.
After being introduced to the rest of the teachers, of whom there were many, and the dogs, they were told to find their houses. Seeing as there were only 3 houses, it wasn't too hard. Then came the task of getting their stuff unpacked.
"Ginny, your bags are over here!" George called as he dragged two of his over to their house. "Why did I bring so many of these damn things?" he asked himself. Fred, who was also heaving a bag towards their house, dug his elbow into George's side. "Just don't tell 'em about the Dungbombs." He whispered, and continued.
"Oh…right." George said, puzzled. For some reason, he had eight big bags, while Fred only had 5. He suspected it was something to do with that, but shrugged it off and kept moving-it was getting dark.
They all assembled for dinner at the MWC. Draco took one look at it and called it the mostly weird centre. There was one thing he did like about it though-there were lit fires.
Dinner was lasagne, salad and garlic bread. Draco complained loudly about not getting enough food, and then didn't finish his serve. Ron was ravenous but for some strange reason, wouldn't eat salad. Fred had turned vegetarian over the holidays; he had the vegetarian option, which frankly looked like mush.
After dinner, everyone went back to their houses and continued to settle in. They were told to be in bed at 9:15, and lights out was at 9:30.
Hermione was the only one brave enough to have a shower that night. It was freezing, but "invigorating" as she put it. Even Harry, who feared nothing much but fear itself, wouldn't try it out.
They were all in bed at the correct time, writing journals and diaries. When the teachers came around, they turned out the lights. Everyone slept peacefully that night. However, things weren't so peaceful after that first night.
A/N: I'll leave you with your thoughts and the review box below now. J