Chapter 8: Where is Batman?

"Well, if you two would learn to worry more about the clock and less about how much sleep you're getting, we would've been out of here already!" Hermione hissed as they made their way under the Invisibility Cloak. They heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and all three of them froze. Neville walked down the stairs, picked up a forgotten book on a chair, and walked back upstairs. Hermione let out an audible sigh as she heard the door to the dormitory close.

"See?" She hissed in a dangerously low tone. "If we would've been out of here, we would've have come that close to being spotted! Now let's go!" She said and led the way out of the portrait hole. Silently, except for the occasional scuff of a shoe across the ragged stone floor, the trio made their way to the third floor. When they arrived at the statue of the One-eyed Witch Statue and Harry tapped it, quietly saying Dissendium. They crept in the passageway and stripped themselves of the cloak for the walk ahead of them. After an hour of winding through the underground tunnel, they arrived at the secret door that was the entrance to Honeydukes.

They went up through the trap door and then went up to the ground floor of the shop. After making sure they were alone, they walked out into the deserted shop. With a quick glance around, the trio stepped out in the deserted streets of Hogsmeade, and grinned at one another. They had made it. They were home free now.

"Ready?" Harry asked, going to a hiding place where he had kept two Firebolts since they had formulated the plan.

"Ready," the other two said firmly, smiles plastered on their faces.

"Sneak, sneak, sneak," Harley tipped toed into the common room of the Gryffindor tower from the portrait hole. She made cartwheels around the comfy sofas and tables of the room, carelessly doing handstands and flips.

Snape walked in slowly behind her, seeming to be gliding instead of walking, because of the way his robes billowed around him. "Can we just go in, check on everybody, and the get out of this godforsaken tower?"

Harley ceased her carefree acrobatics and looked at Snape, "What do yah think I'm doing, Snips?" She put her fists on her hips and gave Snape a look of annoyance. "You just take the fella's and I'll take the girls. They might get a little spooked by havin' you in their bedroom!" Harley giggled and skipped up the staircase to the girl's dormitory.

Snape rolled his eyes skyward and walked swiftly up the staircase to the boys' dorm. The first through sixth years were all sleeping peacefully, much to Snape's dismay. When he reached the seventh year boys dorm, he noticed that the door was slightly ajar. Upon further inspection of the room, he noticed that both Potter and Weasley's beds were empty. Growling about incompetent students, Snape made his way back down the staircase and into the common room.

"Wee!" Harley somersaulted down the girls' staircase, and planted herself squarely in front of Snape. "All heads accounted for, except one!" She exclaimed with glee. "There's one empty bed in the seventh dormitory."

"And I'm missing two. So the Golden Trio has found a way to escape, what a shame. I was looking forward to see them get tortured by another baking class," He said with a sly look towards Harley. "Now, off to report to Joker," he said and, with a swish of his black robes, he was gone.

Harry and Ron mounted the two Firebolts and, rather apprehensively, Hermione sat in front of Ron on his Firebolt.

"Hermione, are you going to be okay going this far?" Ron said, wrapping and arm around Hermione's waist to better steady her as they lifted off the ground.

"Well it's a little late to turn back now isn't it?" Hermione said, her knuckles turning white from gripping the broom so hard.

"Yeah, but it didn't hurt to check did it?" Ron said, smiling.

"Will you two love birds shut up and fly already?" Harry said, hovering five feet above them. "At the rate you two are going, we may get there before the turn of the century.

"But that's three years from now…" Ron said a bemused expression scarring his freckled face.

"Precisely, he's being a smart aleck. He knows when the turn of the century is," Hermione said glaring in Harry's direction.

"So how long do you think it will take us to get there?" Ron said, trying to keep the conversation going.

"If we're lucky, we'll be there by dinner," Harry said trying to push back the thought that none of them had remembered to get any provisions before they left.

It was a quiet night in Gotham. Batman surveyed the streets below from his post on one of the many skyscrapers that cut the city skyline. His slim, black binoculars scanned the deserted streets.

Nothing, not so much as a robbery over the past week, Batman knew that the worst of the Arkham Rogues were somewhere. There was no possible way any villain could have resisted breaking the peace for this long. No, he knew they were wreaking havoc someplace.

After the first two days of peace, he had paid a visit to the asylum to find only the lower security villains still in their cells. Mr. Freeze, the Clock King, Baby Doll, and the Ventriloquist were all slumbering as he roamed the Rogue wing. He noted that the other cells were vacant of any signs of their occupants. The Joker's card games and and laff-pranks were gone, Poison Ivy's plants had vanished. The question remained, where had they gone?

"I can't believe how quiet this wing is," an orderly said to a doctor as they opened the door at the end of the hall

Batman ducked into the shadows of an empty cell. He leaned close to the door, hanging on every word the two said.

"Yes," the voice of Doctor Bartholomew came quietly. "I've even received word from Doctor Marvolo in London that they are making great progress."

"Progress?" The orderly said, surprise filling his voice.

"Yes," Bartholomew replied, "He says that each one has made great improvements in giving up their self images of criminals. He says that even the Joker has given up his persona."

"Amazing," the two men reached the other end of the corridor and exited through the other door.

Batman sank back against the wall. His mind was trying to process everything that he had heard. The most infamous criminals in the history of Gotham had been moved to an insane asylum in London. It was not the fact of being in London that made Batman think, it was the fact that the rehabilitation was working. The fact was near impossible to believe.

Batman looked solemnly around the cell. Against the far wall, carvings had been etched into the painted stone. A typical anti-Batman logo was standard on any Rogue wall but below it was numerous carving of cartoons and smiley faces. A heart with the word "Harley" was next to a wide toothed smiley face that stuck its tongue out mockingly. He was in the Joker's old cell.

With that Batman had silently departed the asylum, leaving the remaining Rogues to finish their rehabilitation without the chaos of the missing inmates.

Since then thoughts of a life without Batman had passed through his mind regularly. He wanted to believe it, but a part of him kept urging him to dawn his cape and cowl each night and patrol the city.

The Dark Knight dropped his binoculars to his side and looked out over the rooftops of the city. In the moonlight, he could see every detail of the buildings. Out of the corner of his eye, two black shadows were flying against the stars.

Batman watched, masked brow furrowing with confusion, as the shadows turned and circled high above Gotham. They were side by side and came to hover in mid air. The first shadow began to descend and the second and larger followed. It looked as if they meant to come down in Gotham Central Park.

Batman replaced his binoculars in his utility belt. Reaching out with his Bat-Grapple, he swung in the direction of the shadows and the park.

"Harry, are you sure that this is the right place?" Hermione asked, dubiously.

"Yes, Hermione, I'm positive," Harry said, for the umpteenth time. "I followed that girl's directions as clear as crystal."

"Which girl was that again?" Ron asked, clearly not paying attention to what happened since yesterday. Flying for a day will do that to you.

"The girl that we met in that small town. Sky Lark was it?" Harry said.

"Oh, yea, her. She seemed to get extremely overexcited at the mention of Batman, didn't she?" Hermione inquired.

"Maybe she's his stalker?" Ron said concentration evident on his face.

"Or maybe she's just smart…" Hermione said.

"Well you would certainly know," Ron said as they made their descent.

"Will you two ever agree on anything?" Harry said as they landed.

"NO!" they shouted together at Harry.

"Well, that's progress," Harry said rolling his eyes, looking around at how magnificent the park looked in the rising moon.

Batman swung silently into a nearby tree. Closer now, he could see that it was three teenagers holding broomsticks. His first thought was that Halloween had come early in Gotham.

"So, where do we go from here?" Hermione asked, ignoring Harry's previous comment.

"To be honest about it, I don't know," Harry said, and the two of them turned to look at Ron.

"What, like I know where we're going?" Ron said, looking at them as if both of them were stupid.

Harry let out a deep sigh, "Well, I guess we should walk around and see if anyone knows where to find him."

"Almost makes you wish Stalker-girl were here doesn't it?" Ron asked lightly.

"In a certain way, yeah it does," Harry said as they walked on, Ron and himself with the Firebolts resting on their shoulders.

A few people were scattered through the park. There was one girl sitting on a bench with white earbud headphones in her ears, her fingers working quickly on the buttons of her Ipod. The trio walked up to her and she pulled one of the buds out of her ear.

"Can I help you?" The girl said. She couldn't be much older than they were, and her blonde hair fell into her eyes. She eyed the Firebolts with curiosity.

"Yes, we were wondering if you could tell us where to find Batman at?" Hermione asked politely.

After getting over the shock of Hermione's accent, the girl stated, "Batman? You want to know where to find Batman? Have fun with that one! No one knows where to find him!" The girl said then burst out laughing.

Hermione just glared and walked away briskly, muttering a quick 'thank you', even though she thought the girl didn't deserve it.

"Lighten up, Hermione. Maybe she didn't know and didn't want to seem stupid," Ron said. Though, after talking to several people who gave the same reaction as the teenager, Ron was beginning to wonder if they'd ever find Batman.

Batman watched as the three teenagers asked the passersby's about how they could locate him. From what he could here they were from England. The trio must be in need of some kind of assistance if they had come all the way from Britain to Gotham to find him. Then it hit him.

Batman dropped stealthily into the gathering of brush below, not wanting to bring attention to himself too soon. He watched as the girl looked around in desperation, she seemed the cleverest of the three-some. He reached into his belt and pulled out a Batarang. With the skill of many long night fights, he launched the Batarang at the tree closest to the young lady.

Hermione heard something hit the tree near her and she spun around quickly.
"Hermione, what's wrong with you?" Harry said, following Hermione's lead and looking behind them.

"I heard something hit the tree," Hermione said slowly, still trying to find the cause of the noise.

Batman looked around, for the moment the three were alone in the park. Without a word he stepped out of the brush and onto the path.

Harry saw a dark figure step out of the bushes and he instinctually stepped in front of Hermione and Ron.

"Who are you?" Harry inquired.

"You're looking for me," Batman said in his sinister, dark tone. "Why?"

"If I may, Sir. These oddly dressed people, along with the Death Eaters, have taken over our school in Europe. They locked up our professors in a dungeon and we snuck down to that dungeon one night. Professor McGonagall, our Headmistress, said that you were the only one that could help us with this. We need your help to get these people out of our school so we can get back to our normal curriculum." Hermione stated clearly.

Batman said nothing at first. Did this girl just say "Death Eaters"? And who were the "oddly dressed people"? "Who?" was all that he could say.

"The Death Eaters, Voldemort's followers. You've probably never heard of them. Then there are the others. The man that was leading the group in the conquest of our school was a man with shocking green hair, and liquid paper white face, and he also wears a purple suit all the time. Would you happen to know him?" Hermione replied.

"Joker…" Batman knew that the Joker rehabilitating was too far-fetched to believe. "And the others too…" He calmly pressed a button on his belt.

"So you do know him. Do you have any idea how to get him out of the school without getting any of the students hurt?" Harry said, the last part was just a reassurance for himself. He'd seen far too much destruction in the past.

Batman said nothing. A low rumbling came from the nearby street. A long black car pulled up to the gateway of the park. The roof of the vehicle slid back to reveal the driver and passenger seats along with a glowing center console. He walked over to the side of the Batmobile and looked back at the three. "Get in."

The three eyed the vehicle with speculative looks. After a few moments Hermione, using her Gryffindor courage walked over and got in. The other two followed, pausing for a moment to pick up their dropped Firebolts.

Batman took his seat in the driver's seat while the other three squeezed into the passenger seat. The roof slid back over, closing the entrance. Batman pulled three blindfolds out of a pocket on the side of his seat and handed them to the Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Put these on…"

Jester's Note: Ha ha, yes did everyone catch the camio? I sure hope so... If not, shame... Oh, and just to clear things up... I stalk the Joker. Batman is more of an obsessive hobbie... Thanks Candles...