I haven't actually worked on writing for the past two weeks, but luckily I've pre-written year 3 some time ago! I hope to find my motivation to write again soon, hahah.

Chapter 6

Flight of the Fat Lady

That evening, Rachel told Zaine about her boggart, and Lukas told him about his. Zaine disappeared for a few minutes, then returned with a bulging bookbag and took both of them to his dormitory.

Rachel, who had only been in Harry, Ron, and Lukas' dormitory, was quite surprised to see that Zaine's dormitory was a lot messier than theirs. They made their way through the books that were strewn on the floor and sat down on Zaine's bed.

"Where did you get that?" said Lukas, eyes wide with excitement when Zaine upturned his bag and food fell onto the bed, wrapped in bags.

"The kitchens," said Zaine happily. "My girlfriend Hallie showed me how to get there last Easter—she's in Hufflepuff."

Rachel leaned forward and thankfully took a large piece of chocolate.

"If you must know," said Zaine, grabbing a chunk of what seemed to be cake, "There was another boggart in the castle, it was in Filch's old broom closet. Professor Lupin took us to it in our first class on Tuesday, he thought it'd be good practice for us since we've never faced any, just read about them. My boggart was You-Know-Who keeping Amy hostage."

Zaine ran a stressed hand through his curly hair that he had put gel in to keep it in place, messing it up slightly.

Rachel sighed and leaned back against one of the posters from the four-poster bed.

"Professor Lupin is a good teacher, though," said Lukas. "We've never had a practical class before, unless you count the class where Lockhart set loose a bunch of pixies."

Zaine snorted into his cake, "I heard about that. Fred and George were talking about it and laughing."

"Ron probably told them," said Rachel.

"Don't doubt that," said Zaine. "Was it really that bad? I heard several kids were thrown out the window."

"That didn't happen," said Lukas. "Wands were thrown out the window—Lockhart's wand, too—and Neville Longbottom was hung on the chandelier."

"And then Lockhart left Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I to clean up his mess," said Rachel. "Those pixies tried to lift up my skirt!"

Lukas burst out laughing.

"I didn't know that happened," he said, digging through the food and finding a bag of chips.

"Yeah, I didn't tell you because I knew you'd make fun of it!" said Rachel.

"Then you shouldn't have told me," said Lukas, sniggering.

Rachel whacked him with a pillow.

For some reason, Rachel woke up the following morning feeling a little sad. She hadn't a clue why, and she didn't remember having any bad dreams.

So instead of focusing on this strange sadness, Rachel put all her attention to her classes, and she agreed with everyone else; Defense Against the Dark Arts had become most people's favourite class. Only Draco Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins disliked it, sneering at Professor Lupin whenever he passed.

"Look at the state of his robes," Malfoy would say. "He dresses like our old house-elf."

Nobody else cared that Professor Lupin's robes were patched and frayed. Rachel found his next few lessons just as interesting as the boggart lesson had been. They studied Red Caps, goblinlike creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed, and after Red Caps they moved on to kappas, water-dwellers that look like scaly monkeys, luring waders into their ponds to kill them.

Potions turned out to be even worse for the Gryffindors, and Rachel made a wild guess it was because of Neville's boggart. The story of boggart-Snape dressed in Neville's grandmother's clothes had travelled through the school like wildfire. Snape's eyes flashed menacingly whenever somebody mentioned Professor Lupin's name and he was bullying Neville worse than ever.

Divination, Rachel thought, wasn't that great either. She disliked the stuffy, warm room up in the tower and wished every time that the lesson would be over very quickly. She and Hermione spent most of their time laughing and giggling.

After the first Care of Magical Creatures class, the subject became very dull. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence, and made them learn about looking after flobberworms, some of the most boring creatures Rachel had ever learned about.

"Why would anyone bother looking after them?" said Ron, after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down the flobberworms' slimy throats.

Rachel agreed wholly.

Luckily for Harry, Quidditch practices were starting again, and he left the common room a few times a week to head out for practice, leaving behind Ron and Rachel as they grumbled about doing homework.

One evening, while Harry was out at practice, Ron, Hermione, and Rachel walked into the common room to find everyone gathered around the battered old notice board.

"Wonder what it is," said Ron, fighting his way through the crowd and peering over the heads of their fellow Gryffindors before gasping. "The first Hogsmeade weekend!"

"When?"

"End of October, on Halloween," said Ron. He turned and looked excitedly at Hermione and Rachel.

Hermione urged them to finish their star charts for Astronomy. They found three of the best chairs by the fireside and went to work.

"What's happened?" Harry asked Ron, Hermione, and Rachel after he'd come back from Quidditch practice.

"First Hogsmeade weekend," said Ron, pointing at the notice. "End of October. Halloween."

"Excellent," said Fred, who had followed Harry through the portrait hole. "I need to visit Zonko's. I'm nearly out of Stink Pellets."

Harry threw himself into a chair beside Ron as Rachel finished up her star chart.

"Harry, I'm sure you'll be able to go next time," Hermione said, reading Harry's upset expression. "They're bound to catch Black soon. He's been sighted once already"

"Black's not fool enough to try anything in Hogsmeade," said Rachel. "Ask McGonagall if you can go this time, Harry. The next one might not be for ages—"

"Rachel!" said Hermione. "Harry's supposed to stay in school—"

"He can't be the only third year left behind," said Ron, nodding in agreement. "Ask McGonagall, go on, Harry—"

"Yeah, I think I will," said Harry, making up his mind.

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but at that moment Crookshanks leapt lightly onto her lap. A large, dead spider was dangling from his mouth.

"Does he have to eat that in front of us?" said Ron, scowling. Rachel giggled into her hand, knowing how much Ron hates spiders.

"Clever Crookshanks, did you catch that all by yourself?" said Hermione, ignoring Ron.

Crookshanks slowly chewed up the spider, his yellow eyes fixed insolently on Ron. Remo, who lay beside Rachel, hissed and spat at Crookshanks until Rachel pulled him into her lap, petting her head.

"Just keep him over there, that's all," said Ron irritably, turning back to his star chart. "I've got Scabbers asleep in my bag."

"And Remo doesn't like him," said Rachel.

"You can copy mine, if you like," said Ron when Harry pulled out his own star chart, shoving it toward him. Rachel leaned forward and tossed Harry her chart as well, feeling bad that he's got a mountain of homework to finish still.

Hermione pursed her lips but stayed quiet, disapproving of copying. Rachel had just started at reading an excerpt from her book on magical creatures (a book she got from the library after making sure it didn't bite or try to put up a fight) when there was a sudden flash of ginger in front of her. She looked up, startled.

"OY!" Ron roared, seizing his bag as Crookshanks sank four sets of claws deep inside it and began tearing ferociously. "GET OFF, YOU STUPID ANIMAL!"

Ron tried to pull the bag away from Crookshanks, but Crookshanks clung on, spitting and slashing.

"Ron, don't hurt him!" squealed Hermione; the whole common room was watching; Ron whirled the bag around, Crookshanks still clinging to it, and Scabbers came flying out of the top—

"CATCH THAT CAT!" Ron yelled as Crookshanks freed himself from the remnants of the bag, sprang over the table, and chased after the terrified Scabbers.

George Weasley made a lunge for Crookshanks but missed; Zaine jumped into his way but Crookshanks slipped underneath a chair; Scabbers streaked through twenty pairs of legs and shot beneath an old chest of drawers. Crookshanks skidded to a halt, crouched low on his bandy legs, and started making furious swipes beneath it with his front paw.

Ron and Hermione hurried over; Hermione grabbed Crookshanks around the middle and heaved him away; Ron threw himself onto his stomach and, with great difficulty, pulled Scabbers out by the tail.

"Look at him!" he said furiously to Hermione, dangling Scabbers in front of her. "He's skin and bone! You keep that cat away from him!"

"Crookshanks doesn't understand it's wrong!" said Hermione, her voice shaking. "All cats chase rats, Ron!"

"There's something funny about that animal!" said Ron, who was trying to persuade a frantically wiggling Scabbers back into his pocket. "It heard me say that Scabbers was in my bag!"

"Oh, what rubbish," said Hermione impatiently. "Crookshanks could smell him, Ron, how else d'you think—"

"That cat's got it in for Scabbers!" said Ron. Rachel told off a few first-years that giggled. "And Scabbers was here first, and he's ill!"

Ron marched out of the room and up the stairs to his dormitory. Rachel shared a shocked glance with Harry before quietly sinking back into her chair and muttering that he spelled the star 'Beta Cassiopeiae' wrong.

Ron was still in a bad mood with Hermione next day. He barely talked to her all through Herbology, even though he, Harry, Hermione, and Rachel were working together on the same puffapod.

"How's Scabbers?" Hermione asked timidly as they stripped fat pink pods from the plants and emptied the shining beans into a wooden pail.

"He's hiding at the bottom of my bed, shaking," said Ron angrily, missing the pail and scattering beans over the greenhouse floor.

"Careful, Weasley, careful!" cried Professor Sprout as the beans burst into bloom before their very eyes.

When Harry and Rachel walked ahead of Ron and Hermione to get to Transfiguration, they found a disturbance at the front of the line that was forming outside Professor McGonagall's classroom.

Lavender Brown seemed to be crying. Parvati had her arm around her and Katie Moon was explaining something to Lukas, Seamus Finnigan, and Dean Thomas, who were looking very serious.

"What's the matter, Lavender?" said Hermione anxiously as she, Harry, Ron, and Rachel went to join the group.

"She got a letter from home this morning," Parvati whispered. "It's her rabbit, Binky. He's been killed by a fox."

"Oh," said Hermione, "I'm sorry, Lavender."

"I should have known!" said Lavender tragically. "You know what day it is?"

"Er—"

"The sixteenth of October! 'That thing you're dreading, it will happen on the sixteenth of October!' Remember? She was right, she was right!"

The whole class was gathered around Lavender now. Seamus shook his head seriously. Hermione hesitated; then she said, "You—you were dreading Binky being killed by a fox?"

"Well, not necessarily by a fox," said Lavender, looking up at Hermione with streaming eyes, "but I was obviously dreading him dying, wasn't I?"

"Oh," said Hermione. She paused again. Then—

"Was Binky an old rabbit?"

"N—no!" sobbed Lavender. "H—he was only a baby!"

Parvati tightened her arm around Lavender's shoulders.

"But then, why would you dread him dying?" said Hermione.

Parvati and Katie glared at her.

"Well, look at it logically," said Hermione, turning to the rest of the group. "I mean, Binky didn't even die today, did he? Lavender just got the news today—" Lavender wailed loudly. "—and she can't have been dreading it, because it's come as a real shock—"

"Don't mind Hermione, Lavender," said Ron loudly as Rachel groaned, "she doesn't think other people's pets matter very much."

Luckily, Professor McGonagall opened the classroom door at that moment. To avoid having to put up with Ron and Hermione, who were glaring daggers at each other, Harry and Rachel seated themselves at the desk in front of theirs.

"One moment, please!" Professor McGonagall called as the class made to leave at the end of the lesson. "As you're all in my House, you should hand Hogsmeade permission forms to me before Halloween. No form, no visiting the village, so don't forget!"

Neville put up his hand.

"Please, Professor, I—I think I've lost—"

"Your grandmother sent yours to me directly, Longbottom," said Professor McGonagall. "She seemed to think it was safer. Well, that's all, you may leave."

"Ask her now," Ron hissed at Harry.

"Now you've got the chance," Rachel added.

"Oh, but—" Hermione began.

"Go for it, Harry," said Ron stubbornly.

Rachel dragged Ron and Hermione out of the classroom as Harry walked toward Professor McGonagall. They waited outside for Harry to come out, and Rachel was terribly annoyed when he told them Professor McGonagall refused to sign it. She didn't want to put up with Ron and Hermione on her own.

Ron was calling Professor McGonagall a lot of terrible names, Hermione thought it was for the better that Harry wouldn't go, which angered Ron even more, and Rachel was just angry that Harry wouldn't come with them.

"There's always the feast," said Ron during dinner, in an effort to cheer Harry up. "You know, the Halloween feast, in the evening."

"Yeah," said Harry gloomily, "great."

Everybody tried to cheer Harry up; Dean Thomas, who was good with a quill, offered to forge Uncle Vernon's signature on the form, but Lukas pointed out that Harry already told Professor McGonagall he hadn't had it signed. Ron halfheartedly suggested the Invisibility Cloak, but Hermione reminded them that dementors could see through those.

On the morning of the 31st, Rachel woke up feeling very excited. She dragged Hermione, who was still sleeping with Crookshanks curled up on her pillow beside her, out of bed and the two got dressed swiftly, before heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast, where they waited for Harry and Ron to arrive.

"So, excited about Hogsmeade?" said Zaine with a grin, joining Rachel and Hermione at the Gryffindor table.

"I'm very excited," said Hermione, pouring syrup on her waffles. "I can't wait to see all the stores—"

"I just want to see the Quidditch store and Zonko's," Rachel interjected. "And Honeydukes, too, all those candies…"

"You'll love it," said Zaine.

"I wish I could go already," said Jacob Homesteeds, the first-year Gryffindor that Jeremy had been friends with for a few years already. "I have to wait three years. It's not fair!"

"Gotta have patience," said Zaine, grinning at Jacob. "Enjoy your free weekends while you're at it—fifth years have stuffed schedules with homework and O.W.L.s—"

"What are O.W.L.s?" said Jeremy, joining the Gryffindor table with Jacob's twin sister Annie.

"Ordinary Wizarding Levels," said Zaine. "They're exams. My cousin Cedric—he's in Hufflepuff—takes them this year. He told me it's terrible to keep up with all the schoolwork and to practice for Quidditch, since he's the captain."

"I've talked with him," said Annie. "He's really nice."

"Yes he is," said Zaine. "Oh, Cormac—I've got the Transfiguration essay finished…"

Zaine wandered off toward his friend and Rachel turned back to Hermione, Jeremy, Jacob, and Annie. The first-years were now whispering excitedly about a spell, and Harry and Ron joined the breakfast table. Harry looked rather depressed and Rachel felt bad for him.

"We'll bring you lots of sweets back from Honeydukes," said Hermione, looking desperately sorry for Harry as well.

"Yeah, loads," said Ron.

"I'll even get you some things from Zonko's," said Rachel, finishing off the last of her blueberry bagels.

"Don't worry about me," said Harry in a somewhat off-hand voice, "I'll see you at the feast. Have a good time."

They finished breakfast and went to the entrance hall. Filch, the caretaker, stood inside the front doors, checking off names against a long list. He peered suspiciously into every face, making sure that no one was sneaking out who shouldn't be going.

"Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, and Rachel Haney," said Hermione to Filch when they reached him.

They said goodbye to Harry and began the ten-minute walk to Hogsmeade.

"I still don't like those dementors," said Rachel with a shiver as they passed the cloaked figures that stood at the gates. "They give me the creeps."

"As long as it keeps Black out of the castle," said Hermione. "I sure hope they go away soon."

"I wish Harry could come with us," said Ron, sighing.

"I bet he'd love it at Hogsmeade," said Rachel.

Hogsmeade was beautiful. It looked like a town from a fairy tale. There were small cottages with stone walls and wooden roofs, with stone chimneys that puffed out smoke. Many of the cottages on the main street were shops, and Rachel marvelled at them all as they passed.

"Where to first?" said Ron excitedly.

"Dervish and Bangs," said Hermione. "I want to see if they've got some more ink, I'm running low…"

Rachel liked Dervish and Bangs; there was an array of different quills (self-writing quills, quills that never ran out of ink, quills that answered questions themselves) and ink (colour-changing ink, invisible ink, ink in the craziest colours like neon-green and hot pink).

While Hermione picked out some ink she liked, Rachel and Ron quarrelled over what type of quill Harry would like for Christmas. Ron wanted a quill that changed the colour of ink by itself, but Rachel thought a Quick-Quotes Quill would be useful for class notes. In the end, Hermione dragged them away from the quills and toward the post office, where they looked at the hundreds of owls. Around their paws were small tags with different colours depending on how fast they could fly.

They went to an animal store next, where they bought some treats for Remo, Scabbers, and Crookshanks (Rachel bought Lukas some expensive owl treats he could give to his owl Adam) and then they headed to Zonko's Joke Shop.

"I love it here," said Rachel, grinning widely as she grabbed many joke items off the shelves before checking herself and putting back everything but a few Sugar Quills (quills of sugar you could suck on in class) and some Dungbombs that she planned to throw into the boys' dormitories if Lukas annoyed her again.

After they exited the joke shop, Hermione suggested going for some butterbeer, as it was nearing lunchtime. They headed from the sharp, cold wind into the warm pub, and Hermione and Rachel headed off to find a table to sit at while Ron went to get three canisters of butterbeer.

"Lovely barmaid, really," he said, grinning a stupid grin when he came back with three canisters of butterbeer. He put them clumsily on the table and blushed when the barmaid looked over.

"Who?" said Rachel, reaching out for one of the canisters.

"Madam Rosmerta, of course," said Hermione teasingly. "Do I spy a little crush, Ronald?"

"W-what? Of course not," said Ron.

Rachel took a sip of the butterbeer, feeling it warm her up inside. She liked the taste and drank a little more of it as they looked around The Three Broomsticks. They saw a group of Ravenclaws in their fifth year playing a muggle cardgame, and in a corner Zaine was snogging a girl with blonde hair and a Hufflepuff scarf. Rachel quickly looked away toward the door, where Lukas had just entered with Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. Ron waved them over to their table.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" said Lukas breathlessly as Madam Rosmerta came over with three more canisters of butterbeer that Seamus paid for. "Hogsmeade?"

"Bloody amazing," grinned Ron. "Have you lot been to the post office yet?" The three boys shook their heads. "Go and see what it's like, it's brilliant."

"Where have you guys gone so far?" said Hermione, wiping butterbeer foam from her mouth.

They'd been to a lot of places; Seamus had dragged off Lukas and Dean to the Quidditch store first, where they had stared at the Firebolt for at least ten minutes before the shop owner had shooed them out. Then they'd gone to Honeydukes, and then they'd come to The Three Broomsticks.

They parted ways after chatting about various things—classes, homework, Hogsmeade, and Harry being the main four topics—and Rachel and Ron dragged Hermione to Honeydukes, which Lukas had pressed for them to go to.

Rachel was amazed by the shop; there were shelves upon shelves filled with sweets and candies in colourful packages. There were several containers with samples that they all tried. Rachel fell for the Pink Coconut Ice (white and pink coconut fudge with flakes of coconut) and they also tried free samples of a new kind of fudge the shop owners had made. They exited the store with their bags filled with candy for Harry and several sweets for themselves, too. Rachel held onto her three containers of Pink Coconut Ice very tightly, eating some every now and then as they went to the remaining stores

At dusk, they started back toward the castle to put away the things they'd bought and to give Harry his sweets before the Halloween feast would start. They entered the common room and found Harry sitting by the fire. Ron walked to him first and upturned his bag, letting the many sweets he'd put in it fall into Harry's lap.

"There you go," he said. "We got as much as we could carry."

"Thanks," said Harry, picking up a packet of tiny black Pepper Imps. "What's Hogsmeade like? Where did you go?"

They immediately lapsed into stories of Hogsmeade.

"The post office, Harry! About two hundred owls, all sitting on shelves, all colour-coded depending on how fast you want your letter to get there!"

"Honeydukes has got a new kind of fudge; they were giving out free samples, there's a bit, look—"

"We think we saw an ogre, honestly, they get all sorts at the Three Broomsticks—"

"Wish we could have brought you some butterbeer, really warms you up—"

"Pink Coconut Ice is terrific, Harry, I got you some—"

"What did you do?" said Hermione, looking anxious. "Did you get any work done?"

"No," said Harry. "Lupin made me a cup of tea in his office. And then Snape came in with a goblet, and Lupin drank it."

Ron's mouth fell open, and Hermione and Rachel looked concerned.

"Lupin drank it?" Ron gasped. "Is he mad?"

"Obviously," Rachel scoffed. "Next we know Snape's poisoning Lupin to get that job."

Hermione checked her watch.

"We'd better go down, you know, the feast'll be starting in five minutes…"

They hurried through the portrait hole and into the crowd, still discussing Snape.

"But if he—you know"—Hermione dropped her voice, glancing nervously around—"if he was trying to—to poison Lupin—he wouldn't have done it in front of Harry."

"Yeah, maybe," said Harry as they reached the entrance hall and crossed into the Great Hall.

It was decorated like usual; there were hundreds of candle-filled pumpkins, a cloud of fluttering live bats, and many flaming orange streamers that swam lazily across the story ceiling. Rachel heard the first-years chirp excitedly at the decorations.

Even though they'd eaten many Honeydukes sweets, Ron, Hermione, and Rachel ate lots, taking second servings of many foods while talking with everybody else. Rachel could see Harry looking anxious, but she didn't know why.

The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts. They popped out of the walls and tables to do a bit of formation gliding; Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, had a great success with a reenactment of his own botched beheading.

Rachel was so happy and content that she didn't even say something to Malfoy, who shouted through the crowd as they all left the hall, "The dementors send their love, Potter!"

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Rachel followed the rest of the Gryffindors along the usual path to the Gryffindor Tower. Rachel was ready to put on her pyjamas after a long shower, but she was disgruntled to find that the corridor that ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady was jammed with students.

"Why isn't anyone going in?" said Ron curiously.

Rachel stood on her tiptoes to look over everyone's heads. The portrait seemed to be closed. Up ahead, she saw Zaine whispering something.

"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password—excuse me, I'm Head Boy—"

A silence fell over the crowd, from the front row first. It was so eery that Rachel shivered, a chill going down her spine. They heard Percy say, in a suddenly sharp voice, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

People's heads turned; those at the back were standing on tiptoe.

"What's going on?" said Ginny, who had just arrived.

A moment later, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait; the Gryffindors squeezed together to let him through, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Rachel moved closer to see what the trouble was.

"Oh, my—" Hermione grabbed Rachel's arm. Rachel felt faint.

The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely.

Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape were hurrying toward Dumbledore as he turned, after looking at the ruined painting.

"We need to find her," said Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."

"You'll be lucky!" said a cackling voice.

It was Peeves the Poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" said Dumbledore calmly, and Peeves's grin faded a little. He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore.

"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily, his voice oily and worse than his usual cackle. "Poor thing," he added unconvincingly.

"Did she say who did it?" said Dumbledore quietly.

"Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves, with a tone as if he was holding a bomb ready to be dropped. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."