A/N: Yay! Everyone jump for joy, there's a sequel, there's a sequel! lol. So yes, as you can clearly see, there is a suquel--- year two. I didn't quite get 40 reviews, but it was close enough. Besides which, I love writing so much, and Fred wanted me to write so yeah. Actually, that's a lie, Fred doesn't even know that I'm writing this yet (giggles). So yeah, read on, and see what happens in Journey, Emily and James' second year. Read and review!
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Next Generation-- Year Two
Dear James--
I can't believe school starts again in just two weeks! I can't wait to go back to Hogwarts; Charlie said that year two is even better than the first year. But with everything that went on last year, anything would be a little better I reckon. I have to be quick, because Mum and Dad are going to be coming in to check that I'm packing up my things, so I'll get to the point. Yes, I can meet where you said tonight. I'll be there at eleven.
See you then!
Jour--
"Journey!" Journey jumped at the bellow of her name, "Journey, are you almost packed?"
"Err-- yes Mum," Journey quickly shoved the letter underneath her pillow just in time as Hermione walked into the room.
"We're moving tomorrow," Hermione frowned as she looked around at the room; cloths everywhere, and books half packed in boxes, "And anything you leave behind is staying left behind."
Journey pouted, "I don't see why you just don't use magic to pack it up. It would only take a few moments."
"But you wouldn't learn then," Hermione stated, "And when you're old enough and know how to use magic, you can use it all you like. But for now," she looked sternly at her daughter, "I want this room packed up."
"Why aren't you bugging Emily and Charlie?" Journey asked.
"Emily was packed a week ago, and Charlie used magic to pack most of his things," Hermione said as she headed out the door.
"Can I get Charlie to pack my stuff!" Journey called out.
The vague call of 'no!' floated into her room, and Journey used a simple spell which she'd been practicing to close her door. Quickly she took back out the letter, signed her name, and looked out the window.
"Pig!" Journey hissed as loud as she dared so that no one would hear, "Piggg!"
With a silent swoop, the brown owl came into her open bedroom window. Her heart pounded with adrenaline as she tied the letter to their family owl. She had done this a few times before already when herself and James would sneak out in the middle of the night… and every time she feared they would be caught. With a small pat, Journey sent the owl soaring back out the window and off into the distance. She then turned her attention back to her room. It was true, they were moving the next day to a different house. But there was something else, that her Mum didn't know. Slowly Journey creep to the door and peaked outside; no one was in site.
"Brilliant," she grinned and closed the door again quietly, locking it behind her, "Esio Pack," the young witch waved her wand, and all of her belongings quickly flew about the room, flying into boxes and bags; packing themselves neatly away.
She spent the next three hours preparing herself for her escape into the night; a strange feeling of dread filling through her that she hadn't felt before when going. At first it had always just been going for fun. For the two to get together and talk, or play one on one Quiddich or some other thing like that that. Recently… it had become different.
"Good night Journey!" the call came from outside of Journey's door at ten-thirty.
"Night Dad!" Journey called out, then faked a loud yawn.
As soon as she heard Ron's footsteps echo off next door to Emily's room, Journey grabbed her bag and went to the window. Opening it she looked out. Her bedroom was on the ground floor so it was a mere five foot drop to the ground; it would be much harder to do at their new house in which her bedroom was on the second floor; a startling twenty feet off the ground. After dropping her bag down, Journey herself jumped out and landed with a thud on the cool, damp ground. The first time that Journey had escaped to go and see James, she had worried how she would make it to him, and figured she would rely solely on hitch-hiking. Sure, she could fly well enough at this point, but her parents never let her keep her broom in her room. But that one night, at the beginning of summer, Journey had scarcely walked a block when a loud rumbling came from behind her, and the night bus came into view. Since then she'd relyed on that to get back and forth.
Sure enough that night she'd walked just two houses away and the bus got there.
"Hello," Journey smiled politely, "The same place as usual please."
"The usual," the tall man laughed turning to the driver, "Hear that? She's got a usual."
Journey rolled her eyes, and grabbed her ticket from him; moving to the back of the bus, "What gits."
The ride usually lasted roughly fifteen minutes as they would travel at unbelievable speeds and swerved through traffic and buildings. The first time making the trip, Journey had been plastered to her seat in fear as she stared wide-eyed out the window. This time, however, she was by far used to it. She stuck her foot up against the wall to keep herself from moving, and opened up her bag.
"Ok," she breathed, "it's still there."
It had been the hundredth time at least that day that she had double checked to make sure the paper was inside there. She didn't want to loose it. She couldn't.
"Oy!" the call from the lanky conductor came from the front, "Stop for the regular."
"Thanks," Journey stated dryly as she stepped out into the cool night air.
Quickly she glanced at her watch; 10:47. She had thirteen minutes to get to the playground where her and James would meet. Not exactly a convenient place as it was a great distance from Journey's house, and about a ten minute walk from James', but it proved to be abandoned past any hour after eight.
"James," Journey hissed out into the night a few moments later as she entered the dark, silvery playground, "Hey James."
No answer. She was the first one there.
She walked over and sat down on one of the swings, a cold shiver running up her spine. It was late July and the weather was always gorgeous. It was even warm in the night, as all Journey had on was a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. But tonight was different. She suddenly felt cold as goose bumps poked up from her bare arm. Slowly Journey looked around. The park was a small one with some titter-totters on one side, a small jungle gym on the other, a merry-go-round in the middle and the swings at the far back. Everything had a thin layer of water on it from rain in the afternoon. The full moon that shone in the now clear sky though caused everything to seemingly be washed in silver.
"Hey!" Journey was snapped out of her daze though as James walked in by the titter-totters, "Sorry I'm late!"
"Err- that's ok," Journey said as James made a last little jog to her, "I haven't been here long."
"That's good," James sat down on the swing next to her, "Did you bring the papers?"
"It's not really papers, just a single paper," Journey took out the old warn parchment paper, "And I had to be very careful to steal this from Emily without her noticing."
James nodded and took the paper.
"What do you have to do?" Journey wondered.
"Umm," James took out his wand and looked around quickly to make sure there was no one around, "I think all you have to do is…" he placed his wand on the parchment, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."
Slowly the words started to form on the page; 'Messer's Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs present to you the Marauders Map'.
"Oh my gosh," Journey whispered, "It's really true. And my dumb sister didn't even show it to me!"
"Yeah, but we have it now," James grinned.
"It's not for us," Journey reminded, "It's for him."
"We don't even know who 'he' is," James reminded his cousin, "We haven't even met him. Why should we trust this map with him?"
"Voldemort said to trust him," Journey said.
"He can trust us," James dug the end of his shoe into the dirt, "Didn't we prove that enough last year?"
"Apparently not," Journey frowned, "Especially not with everything we tried going wrong."
"It wasn't my fault," James defended.
"I know," Journey sighed, "But apparently Voldemort thinks this person will be much better at the job than we will."
"We I won't stand for it," James stated rather loudly, "I don't want to be pushed over for some ruddy first year kid."
"He still needs us, remember," Journey reminded.
"Yeah," James said, "To perform the stupid dark mark when everything is ready. But I want to do more. I can; I'm able to."
"I know, so am I," Journey agreed, "But we have to trust the Dark Lord and the way he's planning things out. I'm sure he'll realize that we're both able magic users, and will get us to do stuff too."
"Rubbish," James mumbled, "All he's doing right now is chasing after a dream."
"What do you mean," Journey shifted more in her swing to face James properly, "He never told me what he was doing in his letter to me. Just to get the map from Emily."
"I know," James was angry now, "He told me not to tell you what he was doing."
"Why!" Journey jumped to her feet and looked directly at James, "Why is he telling you things and not me? What else has he told you!"
"Journey calm down," James said urgently, "Someone might hear you. That's all he told me. Was what he's doing. And if you calm down I'll tell you."
Journey's mood suddenly changed, "Oh, umm. Well if he told you not to, maybe you shouldn't. You don't want to get him mad."
"I don't care," James continued to look at the ground, "If he thinks that I'm not good enough to do his work for him, then why the bloody hell should I go and keep any secrets for him?"
"Err--- ok," Journey shifted from one foot to the other, the cold feeling now seeping inside her.
"He's gone looking for his mother," James explained, "Apparently she died when he was a baby, but he got a memory from Dad. One that showed Dad and Mum at a hospital, and then Dad went and found a lady in the Physic ward that had the same name as his mother, and was calling out for him; by the name Voldemort. So now he's gone looking all over the place trying to find her."
"Oh," Journey felt weird at this information.
"Exactly," James said, "And now while he's off chasing his Mummy, he's getting someone else to do all of his work. Someone other than us who have been loyal to him all this time."
"Maybe-maybe…" Journey's mind fumbled, trying to think of something, "Maybe the person that he's talking about it someone special."
"Who could be that bloody 'special' going into first year?" James spat out, anger still pulsing through his small body.
"Your forgetting," Journey stated, "That we were in first year just last year."
"And look what happened to us," James mumbled.
Journey was silent a moment as she looked around. What is getting darker? The moon didn't seem to be shinning anymore and reflecting off the still playground equipment.
"I'm not going to give it him," James stated.
"Give what?" Journey took her gaze off the surroundings and turned it back onto her cousin.
"The map," James said, "I'm not giving it to him. If that kid is so special, than he can make his own map. This is ours."
"Oh James, I don't think that's a good idea," Journey frowned.
It really was getting darker! Journey's heart began to pound in her chest, and she noticed now, that James was also looking around at their blackening surroundings.
"Journey," James whispered, "What's going on?"
"I-I don't know," Journey whispered, "I-I want to- to…"
"J-Journey…?" James' thick voice came out as his world began to spin around him as a strange feeling of cold and fear enveloped him.
He didn't even have a chance to try and listen to a response fore next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground; his very soul disappearing from within him.
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"Dementors!" Hermione's screech could be heard all the way down the hall at St. Mongo's; causing many people to turn their heads suddenly in her direction.
"Shh," Ron put his arm around his wife, "Hermione calm down."
"I must insist you listen to your husband Mrs. Weasley," the doctor in front of them spoke, "Your daughter is alright, I assure you. Yes it was a dementor, but strange as it is, they did not take either her, or James' soul. Very close call, but they will be fine. They can both go home today and with some rest they'll be fine."
"Thank you," Ron smiled, shaking the doctors hand, while inside trying to keep the panicked hysteria inside him.
"Oh Ron," Hermione collapsed into his arms as the doctor walked away, "We almost lost her. We almost lost are baby," tears were streaming down her face, "You remember those dementors! How they make you feel."
"I know," was all Ron choked out as he held tightly onto his wife.
The two stayed like that for a few moments before they were interrupted by a loud squeal. Turning around, the two saw Harry and Ginny running towards them; Ginny in the lead.
"What happened!" Ginny cried, "Where's James? And Journey!"
"There was a dementor," Ron whispered.
"What!" Harry cried out, "Did-- did it--?"
"No," Hermione quickly jumped in, "No, they're fine. They doctor said that it was close, but they can go home today, and with a little bit of rest, they'll both be ok."
Ginny took a deep, shaking breath, "Thank God."
"What were they both doing out so late anyways?" Harry asked.
"That is what I'd like to know as well," Ron frowned, "I think I'm going to have a nice little talk with Journey once she's feeling better."
"As I am with James," a tearful Ginny said.
"Come on," Ron spoke up, "Lets go see them. They're both in this room here."
Together Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny all walked into the room. There in two separate beds laid James and Journey; both looking exhausted as if they'd just ran hundreds of miles.
"Hey Sweetie," Hermione found herself cooing as she rounded the bed to look at her daughter; the anger which she'd held outside disappearing.
"Mum?" Journey looked through her heavy eyelids at Hermione, "What are you doing here?"
"We heard what happened," Hermione brushed some stray hair from her face, "We wanted to make sure that you were ok."
"Mum I'm sorry," silent tears sprang down Journey's cheeks, "I left the house when I wasn't supposed to."
"It's ok," Hermione shook her head, "We'll talk about that later. Trust me, there'll be punishment little lady, but for now, just worry about getting better and resting, ok?"
Journey nodded her head, "I'm still sorry."
"We know," Ron spoke up, "We all do foolish things when we're younger, but like you mother said, there will be punishment."
"Ok Daddy," Journey managed a weak smile.
"Alright," a voice of a nurse broke up both groups of parents, "These two kids need some rest for a few hours if they want to be discharged, so I suggest the four of you go for a little walk."
Hermione leaned down and gave her a kiss, "Love you Journey."
"Love you too Mum," Journey smiled.
Ron then bend down and placed a kiss on his daughters forehead, "I love you baby."
"Love you too Daddy," Journey next to whispered.
The adults left the room, leaving only Journey and James in the silent, still hospital room.
"J-Journey," James' voice shook.
"Yeah?" Journey didn't even bother to turn her soar, tired head towards the voice.
James swallowed hard before talking again, "The map is gone."
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A/N: Don't you just miss my cliff hangers. People want to kill me by the time the end of the story comes. But yes, there's the first chapter, and obviously there will be more. I hope your enjoying it, and remember; the more reviews I get, the quicker the chapters come up! Review people! Thanks!