Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, and do not own any of the original Harry Potter characters. Any characters you do not recognize from the Harry Potter series are mine. I also do not own the storyline or any part of the movie The Terminal.

 Authors Note: I got the idea for this story from watching the movie The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks. I thought it was funny, so it gave me the idea, what would happen if Harry Potter and his friends, enemies and some other students from Hogwarts got stuck in the muggle world? What if they got stuck in a muggle airport? No, not in an airport, a shopping mall? And so, in a little bit less than two hours, I came up with the idea to create this fan fiction. Anyway, I will shut up now, and let you get on with the story! Hope you enjoy…

The Shopping Bag

Enter the Experiment

  It was a rainy day as hundreds of children gathered around the entrance to the Hogwarts Express on platform nine and three quarters. Most of them were excited to go back to school for the year, and to catch up with their friends they missed over the summer. Others dreaded to go back, from fear of embarrassment, torment, and Professor Severus Snape.

  A tall, slim sixteen-year-old boy boarded the Hogwarts Express in search of a compartment containing his friends. He wore his black school robes, lined in crimson, as he wandered the compartments. His round glasses slipped slightly off the bridge of his nose, and he pushed them back to shield his green eyes. He opened an empty compartment, having given up on his search and sat down.

  "Harry!" A familiar voice called to him a few moments later. He looked up to see a girl with long, bushy brown hair standing in the doorway, sporting similar robes lined with red.

  "Hermione! How was your summer?" Harry asked.

  "Wonderful," Hermione said, looking in the corner of her eye at a certain red headed boy. "I almost wish it never ended, but then, I wouldn't be going back to school, and all that studying won't pay off!"

   "Mione, why worry about studying!" Ron Weasley said for about the thousandth time since summer began. "It's just a waste of free time!"

   "But Ron, I didn't spend all my time studying, did I?" Hermione shot him a glare, but then grinned.

   Harry raised an eyebrow. "What happened while I wasn't around?"

   "Nothing!" Hermione said.

   Suddenly the compartment door slid open and Ron's only sister appeared. "Well, actually…"

    "Ginny!" Ron yelled.

    "Sorry Ron, I can't help it! As I was going to say, Ron and Hermione have become… more than just friends," Ginny said.

   "Really?" Harry said.

   "Yeah, while you were gone…" Ginny started.

   "Ginny!" Hermione hollered. "Harry, it doesn't matter! Anyway, did you hear that Dumbledore is doing an experiment this year with students from our year, as well as Ginny's?"

   "Yeah. I've been trying to think of what it could possibly be. All he said was something about muggles," Harry said.

   "Well, I think that he's going to bring muggles into Hogwarts, to show them things," Ron said. "I hope that I'm right, because then I can laugh when I see the look on Malfoy's face. He'll be furious!"

   Ginny giggled at the thought. "That would be funny."

   "Well," Hermione sighed happily, "I hope, whether muggles come to us or not, that we learn something from them and-"

   "HERMIONE! SHUT UP ABOUT LEARNING! IT'S SCRAMBLING MY BRAIN!" Ron hollered. Hermione stayed silent after that.

  "Okay…" Harry sighed feeling like he was in an unusual situation.

  "So, what did you do over the summer Harry?" Ginny asked, trying to get some conversation going.

  "Not much. Just hung around, bored," Harry said.

  "I see…" Ginny said.

  The compartment suddenly slid open again. Harry and the others watched as two blonde haired Ravenclaw girls stood in the doorway. Harry recognized one immediately as Luna Lovegood. The other girl, however, he didn't recognize at all.  She had mysterious snake-like green eyes. For a second, Draco Malfoy came to mind. Why? Harry didn't know.

  "Hello, Ronald, Ginny, Harry, Hermione," Luna said politely. "I'd like you to meet my older sister, Sakura. She's in your year, Harry, but in Ravenclaw like me."

   "Hello, Sakura," Hermione said, smiling.

   Sakura stared at them, and then her eyes settled on Harry. "Mr. Harry Potter, I've heard the stories, but it makes me wonder… just how did you do it?" Sakura spoke softly.

   "Uh…" Harry didn't know what to say. He just stared right back at Sakura.

   "Sit down Luna, Sakura," Ginny said.

   "Sure," Sakura said sharply.

   Ron's eyebrow's raised. "Malfoy," he mouthed to Harry. Harry gave him a confused look.

   "Well, well, well," A familiar voice said, "If it isn't Pothead and his little friends Weasel, and… Mudblood." Draco Malfoy smirked as he scanned the room. "Oh, and Loony Loveg-"

   "Malfoy, go away!" Ginny said. "Leave us alone!"

   "Yeah! Leave us!" Luna yelled.

   Draco ignored them for a second and stared at Sakura, who was trying to keep herself from laughing. A wide evil grin spread over his face.

   "Seems like your friend here likes what I say about you losers," Draco said.

   "Sakura!" Luna scolded.

   Sakura broke out in laughter then immediately stopped, "Shut up Loony! So, Malfoy, you think I like what you said? Well, to tell you the truth I don't really care! I was laughing, because you need to get a life!"

  Draco glared at her. "Really? Well, you don't know me! So, why should you say that?"

  "I know you are Draco Malfoy, I know your father got sent to Azkaban Prison, and that almost all the girls love you, especially Pansy Parkinson, and that you are rich, snobby, and very self centered, and against 'mudbloods' like Granger," Sakura said.

  "Ooh, Granger getting mad!" Draco laughed at Hermione as she glared at Sakura. "Anyway, how do you know all this about me?"

  "My sister, Luna," Sakura said.

  Draco gasped, " You're sister is Loony Lovegood!"

  "Yes," Sakura sighed.

  He smirked again the turned to leave.

  "Draco, wait!" Sakura said.

  He turned back for a moment, "What?"

  "Your fly is open," Sakura laughed.

  Draco glared at her for a moment, his face red from embarrassment, and raced off back to his own compartment on the train.

  "Sakura, that was great!" Ginny said.

  "Whatever," Sakura said.

  "Why'd you have to refer to me as a mudblood?" Hermione suddenly demanded.

  "I didn't mean to. I was just trying to get back at Draco," Sakura apologized.

   Soon they arrived at Hogwarts. The first years went through the sorting ceremony and got placed in their houses, then joined their house table. Dumbledore stood up and started his speech about the new school year, and made any other announcements.

  "For my last announcement, for the fifth and sixth years, a selected number of you will take part in an experiment for most of this year. Tomorrow, each of you will receive a letter in the morning saying whether or not you will be part of the experiment. If you are part of the experiment you need to meet downstairs here, in the Great Hall, at noon. I will explain to you the rules, and then soon it will start. You do not have to go to morning classes. For those of you who are not taking part, you will still have to go to your morning classes. Now, let the feast begin!" Dumbledore said.

  Harry looked down at his plate of food. He couldn't think about anything but what the experiment was. Even as he made his way up to the Gryffindor tower, he couldn't help but wonder what Dumbledore was up to.

   "Goodnight Harry," Ron yawned later that night, as he stood up from the couch in front of the fireplace. "I wonder if I'll be part of the experiment."

   Harry sighed and stared into the flames in front of him. Hermione perked her head up from the book she was reading and looked at him.

   "What's wrong Harry?" she asked curiously.

   "Nothing. I'm just-"

   "Trying to think of what Dumbledore's experiment is about? I've heard!" Hermione sighed heavily and returned to her book.

   A while later Harry got up and headed to bed. He slept peacefully for the next few hours, letting his wondering mind rest for some time.

  All of the fifth and sixth years waited excitedly for their letters the following morning. Quite a few of them were disappointed since they didn't get accepted for the test Dumbledore had in store for them. Others were disappointed, like a sixth year dark haired Ravenclaw girl, that she had been accepted.

  "Ami! I've been accepted too!" Sakura yelled, running up to the girl near the entrance to the Great Hall.

  "Oh, yeah! I have a friend to annoy me and stand behind me in this weird test we're going to be part of!" Ami said, tucking a bright purple streak of hair behind her ear. Ami Stone (pronounced like Amy) had dyed black hair and bright purple streaks in the front, making her crystal blue eyes pop out. She loved to draw (mostly anime and manga), and read muggle fantasy books in her spare time. She was halfblooded, as her father was a wizard and her mother a muggle. In the summer she normally lived in the muggle world, in Canada, since she was Canadian herself (Sakura too was Canadian, but a pureblood), and traveled every so often to the wizarding world to shop or to see some of her friends.

  "Loony's sister… what are you doing here?" Draco spoke slyly.

  Sakura grinned evilly, "Nothing but waiting here till noon."

  "Really? You are in the experiment too?" Draco said.

  "Yes. I'm taking it you are as well," Sakura said. Draco nodded.

  "Hey Martin," Ami said, waving to a boy in their year, from Gryffindor.

  The boy waved back. His name was Martin Prokru, he was from Bratislava, Slovakia, and came to Hogwarts to learn both English and magic. Ami and Sakura were two of his only friends, and had volunteered to help him learn English. He had light brown hair streaked blonde in a small Mohawk, and baby blue eyes.

   "Hi," Martin said. "Uh, you in, um…"

   "The test?" Ami said. Martin started nodding. Ami nodded back. "Same with Sakura and Malfoy."

    "Yes," Sakura said.

    "Pothead's coming," Draco hissed.

    Harry Potter walked towards them and joined their group. Draco stood farther away from them, his arms folded, glaring at them.

    Soon it became noon and everyone who had been accepted for the unknown test had gathered in the Great Hall. There was the trio (Harry, Ron, and of course Hermione), Draco Malfoy and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson by his side, Ginny, Luna, Colin Creevy with his camera, Neville Longbottom, Sakura, Ami, Martin, and about five other students who no one really knew.

    Dumbledore appeared behind them. "Now students, I am here to explain to you what is going to happen in the next while. First of all, you do not need to bring anything, except for your school textbooks, which will be at the location the experiment will take place at. Secondly, you will have to try to work together during this experiment. The test is to see how long, and how well you can last in the muggle world, in a mall. You will be living in the mall, eating, breathing, sleeping, working, and spending your leisure time in this mall. It will be your home for the better part of the school year. You might build or lose friendships, relationships may begin between some of you, and others may become pure enemies, or, nothing will change at all. Everything all depends on if you work together and how you make of this. Now everyone go over to one of those three statues. They will transport you to the mall that you will be staying at. When you get there, you can do what you want except… leave."

  All of them walked over to one of the three and touched it, and they all soon ended up in a dark, cold room.

  "Where are we?" Draco demanded to know. "And who is sitting on my hand?"

  "We're in a storage room in a shopping center!" Hermione hissed, standing up and opening the door into the bright shopping area before their eyes.

  "Wow! This is what a muggle store looks like… It's a whole bunch of stores hooked together!" Ron gasped.

 "Ron, it's a mall! It's a whole bunch of stores in the same area! It's like Diagon Alley but enclosed and with security!" Hermione said, whacking him in the back of the head.