6: Hogsmeade And Death Eaters Part 1
Harry woke up the next day at around nine o'clock. He quickly rose from bed, wondering whether Sirius was awake at the time. He shook some of the sleep from his eyes and threw on some clothes. He rested for a while and then set off, out of the common room and down Hogwart's stone corridors, which seemed a little distracted this early in the morning. Finally Harry reached Sirius' room, and he knocked three times on the portrait of a cheeky gnome, much to its annoyance. After a few seconds the portrait swung open, and Harry grinned up at Sirius.
'Hiya Harry' Sirius greeted him 'Sorry, only just got up' He yawned. 'I was wondering, do you want to go to Hogsmeade today? It might be our last chance' Harry thought that it was a good idea, so he accepted.
'Can I bring Ron and Hermione?' He asked, and Sirius nodded.
'Of course' he grinned, and then looked at his magical wristwatch. 'Ok. Meet me by the oak door, at around noon' Harry nodded. He stayed and chatted with Sirius for a while, and then set off, back to the common room. When he arrived, Ron and Hermione were awake, and already bickering. It seemed that shouting at each other was their favourite hobby. Harry had to separate them to tell them of their trip.
'OK.' Hermione said 'It will probably be our last proper look at Hogsmeade for a while' Harry nodded. After that Ron and Hermione stopped their bickering, and asked a little more about the night before. Harry told them now, what he had forgotten, about Auburn, Talon and Fletcher. Hermione gasped.
'Hey! I've read of them!' She said in a hushed voice 'Talon Stride and Jasmine Weare are legendary figures, And Mundugus Fletcher was the only person to get transferred between two houses, he went from Hufflepuff to Gryffindor.' she stopped a little to gain breath 'Talon Stride is a legendary wielder of a blade- Instead of a wand on the battlefield, he uses a sword, and he's pretty good with it as well' Again she stopped 'Jasmine is the last descendant of the 'Red mages' She can do really rare and powerful fiery magic!' Harry and Ron were stunned, for two different reasons.
'How do you know all of that?!' Exclaimed Ron, while Harry was amazed at how he had been with some of the most powerful figures, and not really noticed. She shook her head.
'I'd quite like to meet her at some point' She said curiously 'She sounds as if she knows a lot.'
They passed the time by going down to the kitchens again, and getting some food. As always, the house elves were delighted to hand over all the confectionaries. They then proceeded into Mrs Weasleys 'house' so Ron could tell her where he was going. As they couldn't be bothered trekking all the way back up to the common room, they decided to stay there for a while.
In no time at all the clock struck twelve, and the group left Mrs Weasleys place and moved down one set of stairs, and went into the great hall. The sky was very sunny, and Harry knew it was going to be hot outside. Sirius and Remus ushered them out o the doors and Harry found out he was correct. It was boiling outside, and after the short walk to Hogsmeade everyone was sweating. On the way Sirius had been telling them about Harry's father and the things they did at Hogwarts. Harry had laughed at the sort of pranks they did, and Ron jokingly sighed and said they were even worse than Fred and George.
'I'd like to meet your brothers sometime' Sirius said 'They sound excellent chaps' Remus grinned
'I taught them, they were nearly as bad as us, but not quite' Sirius laughed as they entered Hogsmeade. There wasn't too much activity going on, only a few people were walking around the streets, but Harry reminded himself that it wasn't a school trip this time.
'Where to first?' Sirius asked.
'That's up to you' Harry said. And they were off, around every single shop in Hogsmeade (it was easy as there was only fifteen) To Honeydukes, then Zonko's, then Gladrags (Harry wanted to get Dobby some socks) finally they had visited every single one, and were panting slightly.
'How about a drink at the three broomsticks?' Remus said 'I could do with one' everyone nodded at this proposal. The pub was the only part of the village that was actually fairly crowded. The group found a vacant table, and quickly sat down, while Sirius and Remus ordered the drinks, the day had been very relaxing, and everyone was beginning to wind down. The pub was rather smoky, as three people at the bar were smoking rather large pipes.
After two drinks, the small group headed out of the pub, aiming to get back to Hogwarts, unfortunately they met a rather unexpected sight.
'It's Lucius Malfoy!' Sirius hissed, indeed, Draco's father was there, over the road with five other fellow death eaters. However, they were not in their black cloaks or costumes. They were obviously scouting out the area. Everyone dived for cover in the nearby bushes.
'Can we take them?' Ron whispered quietly.
'There's too many' Replied Remus quietly. Despite the tenseness of the situation, his voice remained calm.
'We can't remain here forever!' Hissed Hermione. As she spoke three more people who looked a lot like death eaters came wandering to Lucius Malfoy.
'It looks like the army is arriving already!' Harry whispered quickly. Sirius nodded, but said nothing. Fortunately, the group of death eaters moved off somewhere else, letting Harry and the others clamber out of the uncomfortable bushes.
'Well, that was close!' Ron said. They briskly walked back to the castle, but froze when they heard a shout. Suddenly Harry felt a sizzling bolt of energy fly past his right ear. He spun around, throwing all caution to the wind. The eight death eaters whom they saw earlier were hurling hexes everywhere. Passers by screamed and ran for cover.
Harry had to dive as another, green bolt flew towards him. Whipping out his wand Harry pointed at the nearest death eater and screamed 'Stupefy!' And turned and ran after his friends. He heard a thud behind him as the man fell to the ground, stunned. Many curses flew past him as he ran, but he didn't stop. Soon he caught up with Ron, and encouraged him to keep running. More green bolts of energy flew past them.
'Just make it to the castle!' Sirius said through gritted teeth. They dived through the castle borders, and turned around, to see Lucius and his men screech to a halt.
'What are we waiting for! Lets kill them!' A death eater growled.
'Are you mad!' Snapped Lucius Malfoy. 'Hogwarts repels evil, although that will soon be changed!' He grinned evilly at Harry. 'You will soon be with your mother and father, boy' Harry felt his pulse rising. It wasn't fear, it was anger.
'Oh, I don't think so' He said, coolly. He then stalked off, beckoning the others to follow. He didn't want his anger to kill him at these early stages; He knew that giving in to his anger would be like giving in to Voldemort.
'We should definitely go and see Dumbledore' Sirius said as they reached the castle door. They didn't waste any time, they went straight to his office.