Once September was over the professors really started to load on the homework. I thought O.W.L year had a lot of homework but that was nothing compared to now. Every night Susan and I sat in the common room with stacks of books researching and writing essays. In class work was getting harder as well. Professor Snape was getting more difficult but he tended to leave me be as I was a fairly competent potion maker and there wasn't much to pick on and I liked to keep it that way.
Before I knew it Halloween had come. I woke up that Saturday morning and headed down to breakfast.
"This is the best day of year to be a witch and I'm going to be stuck doing homework." I whined as I buttered my toast.
"Well, what better way to be a witch on Halloween than working on magic?" Susan shrugged and ate a spoonful of porridge. "It's not like we can go anywhere anyways, the grounds are on lockdown because of You-Know-Who."
"Today would have been a perfect day to go to Hogsmeade." I said before taking a bite of toast.
"Well, we can't leave the grounds and you know that." Susan said and glared at me.
"All I'm saying is I would rather spend the day in Hogsmeade than in the common room doing homework. What are Sundays for if not to give you time to do the things you didn't want to do on Saturday?"
"And how do you propose we leave the grounds without being noticed?"
"Are you guys planning on going somewhere?" Mark Wizenby asked as he squeezed next to Susan at our table. "I can help with that under one condition."
"And what is that?" I asked eagerly.
"If you two are going somewhere cool then I want to come too." He smiled.
"I think it would be fun to spend Halloween in Hogsmeade." I explained.
"But she knows that there is no way off the grounds because of the added security measures." Susan added glaring at me.
"I know of a way." Mark smirked. "And I am going to go with you two to Hogsmeade."
"No way, Mark." Susan blurted. "We'll all get into trouble."
"We'll only get into trouble if we get caught and I don't plan on letting that happen." Mark winked at Susan and placed his hand over hers.
"What's the plan?" I asked.
"Once, when I wasn't allowed to go to Hogsmeade for reasons that will be kept secret from you two, Sirius Black offered to sneak me in. He took me through a secret passage and I led right to Hogsmeade."
Susan Scoffed. "A secret passage I'm sure."
"Susie, this might be our only chance to go to Hogsmeade this year. Don't you at least want to try?" Mark moved his hand from Susan's to her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. Susan seemed to melt a little.
"Susie?" I laughed.
"Shut up, Ruby!" She yelled.
I smiled and put my hands up defensively.
"Okay," Susan conceded. "Where is this secret passage then?"
"It's in that one-eyed witch statue by the stairs to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. You have to say a password but I'm pretty sure I remember it." Mark said still looking into Susan's eyes not acknowledging my presence at the table anymore.
"Great!" I said clapping my hands together and causing them both to snap their heads in my direction. "After breakfast we can go change into different clothes so that it isn't as obvious that we are students and we can head to Hogsmeade for Halloween."
Susan looked nervously at Mark who seemed to be into the idea of sneaking to Hogsmeade. She furrowed her brow but then smoothed out her face and forced a smile. "Well, what are we waiting for?" She said in false excitement. "Let's go." She got up from her place at the table and made her way from the Great Hall. Mark and I followed.
Once we had parted ways with Mark as he headed to the Gryffindor passage and we made our way to Ravenclaw tower Susan turned to me in the hall and blocked me. "Are you completely mad?" She shouted at me. "We're going to get caught!"
"You don't have to come. I could go with Mark all by myself though I think he would be upset if you didn't come."
Susan's cheeks blushed. "Do you really think he likes me?" She asked with a hopeful smile but her smile quickly turned to a scowl "Uhh, you are so manipulative!" She groaned before she moved out of my way and we started on our way to the tower again.
We changed out of our house robes and into regular clothes. Susan spent some extra time putting on make-up and I just threw my hair up in a ponytail.
Susan and I walked to the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom and we saw Mark standing next to the one-eyed witch statue. His eyes lit up and he smiled when he saw Susan. A pang of jealousy exploded in my gut; no one ever looked at me like that. I shoved the jealously to the back of my mind and stood next to the statue.
"Okay, so now what?" I asked Mark.
He smiled and took out his wand. He tapped the hump with his wand. "Dissendium." He said.
There was the scraping sound of stone rubbing over stone and the hump opened revealing stairs that headed into a tunnel. We heard footsteps and rushed into the passage. The noise of stone sounded and we were surrounded in darkness.
"Lumos." I said and the tip of my wand lit. Mark and Susan did the same.
"Where does this come out?" I asked.
"In the basement of Honeyduke's." Mark answered.
"So, were you good friends with Siriu-" Before I could finish my question Susan let out a loud scream and threw herself into Mark and clung tight to his arm. He just looked at her and smiled.
"I'm sorry." She said and loosened her grip on his arm. "A spider dropped down in front of my face and it…I over-reacted. I'm sorry."
We kept walking through the tunnel and Mark draped his arm over Susan's shoulders. My jealousy came back. Also the sick feeling of knowing I was now the third wheel.
We emerged from the passage into a dark dusty room filled with barrels and boxes. Mark led the way to a ladder going up to a trap door above our heads. He climbed up first and helped Susan through the opening. By the time I climbed into the shop Mark and Susan were already leaving through the front door. I closed the trap door to the basement as quietly as I could in my hurry to catch up to them. I briefly considered going back down and returning to Hogwarts because I was sure I wouldn't be missed by those two but something pushed me to stick with them.
I caught up with them just as they were turning to enter the Three Broomsticks. I ran up behind them. Hogsmeade was oddly empty especially for a holiday like Halloween. Mark grabbed for the door handle. I thought I could see three dark hooded figures behind the window in the door to the pub. One of the three figures appeared to turn and slowly raise its arm. Without even thinking about it I tackled Mark and Susan to the ground, broken glass showered over our heads as a green curse broke through the door.
Mark and Susan were visibly shocked but there was no time to stop. I grabbed both of their arms and pulled to make them get up. The door burst open and three men in hooded black cloaks stepped outside. All of them wore masks that covered their faces. I took off running with my hands wrapped tightly around Mark and Susan's wrists to make sure they were still with me. Many colored curses flew passed us as we ran down the street. I considered returning to the trap door in Honeyduke's but they were so close to us that it would just lead them right into Hogwarts.
I took a quick turn into Dogweed and Deathcap. I ran between the rows of plants with Mark and Susan close behind. I flung myself to the ground in the middle of the shelves and pulled Susan down with me. I moved my finger to my mouth to signal to them both to be quiet. There was a crash as the door was ripped from its hinges and fell loudly to the floor. Susan let out a whimper and I covered her mouth with my hand. Footsteps sounded on the floor. They were getting dangerously close to our location. I reached around on the shelf behind me for anything. My fingers wrapped around a small potted plant that appeared to be oozing pus and I threw it across the room. One of the Death Eaters reacted to the noise and sent a curse flying in that direction and sent a potted adolescent mandrake crashing to the floor. I pulled my hand from Susan's mouth and covered my ears.
One of the Death Eaters was very close to us when the Mandrake's pot shattered because he fell unconscious at the end of the row we were hiding in. His mask fell away from his face but I didn't recognize him. Susan screamed. As soon as her mouth opened I hopped up and started running in the opposite direction of the fallen Death Eater. I turned the corner and had to jump over the unconscious lump of a second black cloaked body. As we neared the front door I saw the third of the bunch with his hands held tightly over his ears. As soon as his eyes found us he took off running after us. We were back in the open Hogsmeade square. My hands were usable again as soon as we were a few feet away from Dogweed and Deathcap. I reached in my pocket and withdrew my wand. I clenched it tight in my fingers and my head swarmed with all the curses I had learned over the years trying to figure out which would be best used.
"IMMOBULUS!" A deep loud voice yelled.
The stride of the Death Eater stopped. I turned quickly to see that he had been frozen in place. I looked around and a man who bared a striking resemblance to Dumbledore stood outside the Hog's Head. Susan fell to her knees sobbing and Mark kneeled next to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. I stood still and kept my eyes on the man standing outside the pub.
"You all best head back to school." He said his voice carried well across the breeze. "You shouldn't be here. Something strange is going to happen tonight mark my words."
The strange man turned and walked calmly inside. The wind started blowing furiously and howled between the bare tree branches.
I helped Mark get Susan to her feet and we walked past the still frozen Death Eater back to the trapdoor in Honeyduke's.
By the time we exited the witches hump in Hogwarts there was a full blown storm outside. Cracks of thunder reverberated around the halls. Mark shrugged a goodbye to Susan and I before he headed in the direction of Gryffindor Tower. Susan didn't acknowledge him and turned on her heel in the direction of Ravenclaw Tower. I turned after her.
As soon as Mark was out of view I stopped Susan. "What was that all about?" I asked tipping my head in the direction Mark wandered off in.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She said and tried to continue walking."
I took a step in front of her and blocked her path. "You completely ignored him just then." I said. "All that time in Hogsmeade and you couldn't have been bothered to wait for me to get out of the basement of Honeyduke's before you were almost out the door with him and you just went through all of that and he never let go of your hand and now you're ignoring him? You don't make sense, Sue."
She looked thoughtfully to the floor and mumbled something under her breathe.
"What was that?" I asked.
"You ruined everything!" She shouted at me. "Mark and I were fine the way we were and then you just had to go to Hogsmeade. I told you it was a bad idea but you didn't listen and now I am positive Mark thinks I'm trouble and will never talk to me again and it's all your fault, Ruby!"
She shouldered me out of her way and started stomping away.
I ran after her. "Sue, stop. I'm sure he doesn't think you're trouble. If anything he thinks I'm trouble he knows it wasn't your idea to go. But to be honest he knew that we were breaking rules even by going and if he doesn't normally do things like rule breaking then the only reason he went along was to spend time with you so I don't think he hates you."
She looked up at me suppressing a small smile. "You really think he went because of me?"
"Well he sure didn't go because of me. I don't think he would have noticed if I would have disappeared."
Sue smiled and we walked the rest of the way to Ravenclaw tower with our elbows linked.
The remainder of the afternoon Susan and I spent in the Common Room doing homework. Neither of us talked about what had happened in Hogsmeade though we both knew that was all the other was thinking about.
What did that man mean that something strange was going to happen tonight? Did it have anything to do with the reason those Death Eaters were in Hogsmeade? What had we been about to walk in on? My head swarmed with questions and replayed images of what happened.
"Ruby!" Susan said and shook my shoulders. I blinked my eyes and looked at her. "Ruby, you haven't written anything in almost an hour and you've just been staring at the wall. Are you okay? Do you need to go to Madam Pomfrey?"
I shook my head. "No, I'm alright. I was just thinking." I pressed the quill in my hand to the paper.
"Ruby, it's time for the Halloween Feast." Susan said as she lifted my quill out of my hand and placed it beside my roll of parchment.
We made our way down to the Great Hall. As always the ceiling mimicked the sky outside. The dark rolling clouds and bolts of lightning made for a spooky addition to the Jack-O-Lanterns hovering in the air over the tables. I scanned the head table and noticed that Snape was missing.
"Where do you think Snape is?" I asked.
"Probably lying unconscious in Dogweed and Deathcap." She scoffed.
My head snapped in her direction. "What?" I said giving her a chance to rethink what she said.
"Mark says Professor Snape is definitely the type to follow You-Know-Who." She said adding a pile of mashed potatoes to her plate.
"Sue, think about it. Do you honestly think Dumbledore would hire a Death Eater to teach at Hogwarts?"
She shrugged and continued eating her supper.
I looked back up at the head table. When my eyes crossed Dumbledore my stomach churned. There was a look in Dumbledore's eyes that I had never seen on the Headmaster before: Fear.