Hogsmeade Surprise

Penny's concerns about not having a dress disappeared after Hermione mentioned it. The last few weeks before the ball passed quickly, and the weekend of the hogsmeade visit caught Penny off guard. When she woke to the sound of someone scuffing about the room, she drew aside the curtains to find Hermione standing just beside her bed as if she'd been slapped.

"Hermione?" she asked quietly so as not to wake the other first years in the dorm. When Hermione handed her a piece of shimmering fabric, and a note, then disappeared back through the doorway of the first years dorm, Penny couldn't make heads or tales of the situation. Unfolding the parchment, Penny read the note scripted in Hermione's neat handwriting.

Penny,

Be sure to destroy this letter after you read it....if Filch or Prof. Snape found it, we'd all be in a ton of trouble, and Ron and I would lose our prefect badges.

Penny smirked to herself as she thought "not much to Ron's disappointment if he could get Hermione to leave him be!"

This cloak is an invisibility cloak. When you put it on, the material makes the wearer invisible, but not non-existant. This means that if you wear it, someone can still walk into you, but they can't see you.

We should tell you why we're giving this to you then. Inside the cloak is another peice of parchment. Tap it with your wand and say "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Put the cloak on, and follow the path marked in red. We'll meet you at the other end of it...and if you come across a big black dog, don't be afraid of him. He won't hurt you.

Be sure to destroy this!

Hermione, Harry, Ron

She tore the letter and put it in her cauldron, setting it ablaze with the magick fire spell Hermione had taught her. She waited for the students to finish filing out on their way to hogsmeade, but before the last student had handed Filch their hogsmeade permission slips, Penny had slipped the cloak on, tapped the map, and moved in invisible silence to the location of the first red mark on the map.

There was only one instant when Penny had to stop and hide, and that was when Professor Trelawney was walking along the corridor to meet the other teachers for the usual trip to Hogsmeade's most used cafe/pub.

She stepped silently into a small room and waited for Prof. Trelawney to walk by before returning to the corridor and continuing on her way.

Her arrival at the end of the marked path was announced to three students who sat with their heads facing the street of Hogsmeade by a large shaggy black dog, who yipped out a welcome and nearly pounced Penny to the ground, but stopped last minute to save himself from looking the idiot for attacking thin air.

They slipped up a pathway that seemed to lead away from the village of Hogsmeade and to a run down shack on the top of a hill. There had not yet been any snow, so fear of her footprints being seen was small, and the only one who seemed concerned was Hermione, who was always concerned that they'd get caught.

The Shreiking Shack was empty, as they had expected it would be, and still showed no signs of teenage abuse. Sirius shifted to his human form, and wrapped an arm around Phoenix, who shrank away from his arm uncomfortably. Who was this strange man? Why did he know her name? And what did she have to do with Albus Dumbledore and his tricks?

Sirius released her as soon as he felt her draw away. So, Dumbledore had told the poor girl nothing. She didn't know what she was yet, nor what it meant for the wizarding world. He wondered if she'd ever cried...

Harry introduced them formally, then the three of them, Harry Ron and Hermione said they were leaving, and disappeared back the way they had come, leaving Penny and Sirius to sit in silence. For the first ten minutes or so, Penny looked around the first floor of the house. She hated to admit that she was afraid to be left alone with the strange animagi. His dog form was frightening, and in human form he didn't look much better.

When Sirius finally broke the silence, he flopped into a chair near a broken and dusty fireplace, surrounding himself with a flurry of dust. "So, Miss Phoenix, it looks as though we two are stuck here..I'm surprised those three would have you come all this way to get stuck in this old place." he said with a smirk in his eyes, but a blank expression on his face.

She grimmaced, looking at him with an accusatory glare "What do you know about me? Why does everyone keep calling me Phoenix?" She asked quite loudly, causing Sirius to glance around at the windows to make sure no one had heard her. "Sorry lass, I'm not the one to tell you, you'll have to talk to the headmaster about that." he smirked again, and she glared at him. The half hour that followed as spent in silence. Phoenix drew pictures in the dust on the floor and Sirius thumbed through a few books that had somehow found their way into the shack.

When the silence was once again broken it was to the sound of the others coming back, and Sirius dropping a book in surprise at their entrance. Hermione looked from one to the other of the house's temporary prisoners and scowled "There's been an alert, Sirius, you've got to go, and so've you Penny, safest if you go on back to the school the way you came...Filch doesn't know about that passageway yet.

Penny's trip back to the castle was silent, and full of anxiety. What had the alert been about? She didn't have to wait long to learn. Someone had spotted the Animagi dog, and reported it, and the authorities had been called in to search for Sirius Black.

A/N: There will be some changes to the entire story, as soon as I figure out where I edited things. Please be sure to keep an eye out. I will put a new authors note at the end of any chapter I change, stating that it has been changed for anyone who wants to reread it. The next few chapters are tentative, but I have them, so I'll post them. Keep in mind that the Dressing In Magic Part two may be pushed back furthur in the story to accomodate a continuation to this plotline.)