Narcissa trudged on through the cold, knee-deep snow. By now she had been walking for nearly two hours, and was soaked to the bone, and shivering. She stopped for a moment, glancing up at the sky she crossed her arms across her chest, and marched on. It was dark, and cold, but she knew she couldn't stop. Voldemort was already pissed, and failing to do this wouldn't exactly help much. But just because she had to do it didn't mean she had to like it. On the contrary, she loathed what she was about to do. In fact she thought it was so utterly stupid that twice she'd almost turned around, before she remembered why she was forcing herself into this. She stopped abruptly at a set of iron gates, and stood there, waiting for someone. Who? Not even she knew.
''
Severus read through his letter one last time. And, as before, fear and anger swelled with in him. Calming himself, he grabbed his thick woolen cloak from its peg, and then reached over and retrieved three small vials filled with differently colored liquids. It had been a long morning for the potions master, then a long a day, and now he as going to have a very long night. How wonderful. But all the same he had no choice, he had to give the vials to the messenger. And so he marched out of him warm office, into the cold, damp corridors, and made his way to the entrance hall; and from the entrance hall into the dark night. The moon was hidden behind a cloud, minimizing the amount of light it cast. 'Perfect,' Thought Snape, 'At least no one will be able to see me.'
He marched out to the gates and swung them open. He hadn't taken more than two steps outside the gates of Hogwarts when two hooded figures came toward him from the shadows.
"Severus. On time, as always." An unfamiliar voice came the figure on the right.
"I make it a habit to be punctual." He answered, not at all disrespectfully; after all he still didn't know who'd been sent after him. The man on the left nudged the other and they lowered their hoods. Crabbe and Goyle Sr. No wonder he hadn't recognized the voice; he doubted he'd ever heard the man speak a word before.
"And you have the potions?" Goyle asked impatiently; he was obviously anxious to get out of the cold December air. Not that Snape could exactly blame him.
"Why would I be here if I didn't?" He asked snidely before producing the vials. The three men nodded respectfully in each other's direction, and went their separate ways.
''
Looking back, Narcissa was never sure how long she was standing beside those iron gates before someone finally came and opened them. But by the time they did her lips were blue, and she was nearly hypothermic. Finally a man with a crooked back, and an obvious limp came, holding a lantern in one hand, and the leash of a huge dog in the other.
The man that opened the gate didn't even glance at her, but held the gate just long enough for her to pass, then led her up a climbing path. In places the path they took grew steep and icy, and twice Narcissa nearly slipped on the slick surface. As they walked the trees blocked the moonlight, and the only light was the lantern the man was carrying. The entire time the dog barked incessantly.
After nearly an hour of walking, the path leveled out and a large manner came into view. The man stopped and, bending down, unhooked the latch of the leash and released the dog, then, turning around to look at Narcissa, muttered, "This way, please." And then led her to the large oak front doors of the manner and instructed her to knock twice before leaving her standing alone on the door step, still not even knowing whose doorstep it was.
Narcissa did as she was told, and a booming voice answered from the other side of the door. "State your name and business."
"Narcissa Malfoy, running errands for the Dark Lord." She stated clearly, and was surprised, and a little disappointed when the door swung open to admit her.
''
Remus was, as always, in his favorite chair with, once again, a cookie. Today he had a coffee cup full of milk with him, and was quite relaxed. The fire was warm, and the snow that gently drifted past the window had a calming effect on him. The full moon was in two weeks, but today, his impending doom didn't seem to bother him. He sat there for quite some time, not even glancing at the cookie in his left hand, waiting.
Waiting for what? You might ask. Well, he was waiting for Sirius to come interrupt his nice, relaxed state of mind, and give him something to be mad about. But after nearly ten minutes, Sirius still had not come. He slowly moved the cookie to his mouth. He stopped, the cookie an inch from his mouth. He listened, nope nobody there.
As he took the first bite of the cookie, he sensed someone else in the room. He finished chewing and swallowed then, with out looking up, said, "Don't even think about it, Sirius."
"How'd you know it was me?" Sirius half yelled, lowering the bucket of ice water he'd been about to dump on Remus' head.
"Who else would it be?"
"Harry-" Sirius started, only to be cut off.
"Is asleep, according to the house elf that just brought me this cookie."
"Well, then Ginny-"
"Is meeting with McGonagall."
"Ron could have-"
"He's upstairs, arguing with Ms. Granger."
Sirius' face fell as he realized he couldn't win. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Sirius I knew you were dense, but I never thought you were that dense." Remus rolled his eyes and handed an old piece of parchment to Sirius. "I borrowed this from Harry." He added in way of explanation. "Now run along. Give that to Harry next time you see him."
"Yes, Ma'am." Sirius stuck out his chest and saluted him, then ran before he could be hexed.
''
The next time Sirius saw Harry, it was mid after noon, and Harry was walking alone on the grounds near the lake.
"Hey!" Sirius said, jogging over to meet the young man. Harry looked up and nodded in acknowledgement. Then looked out at the lake and continued walking. "What's up?" Sirius asked him, worried at his lack of speech.
"Ginny's locked herself in her dorm. She won't come out an she's not answering our knocks."
"Have you told McGonagall? She might be able to get her to come out."
"It's no use Sirius. But it's starting to get me worried." Harry stopped and looked up at the older man. Green eyes pleading for an answer to the enigma that was Ginny Weasley.
"Well, then lets go see was she's up to, maybe we can get her to come out."
(A/N: Hey, sorry this one took so long. It was actually done a while ago, and I meant for it to be longer, but there's something wrong with my computer, so I'm going to end it here and let Taylor start writing. Hopefully I can get my computer to work right again before I have to write again, but if not I'll use my mom's computer. And to add to the list f excuses why I haven't had this done sooner, I made all-stars so I've had softball practice every night but Wednesday, and weekends, and my sister has tournaments on the weekends; And sleeping in until noon doesn't help either. Once again, sorry it took so long. Please review! Tell me how much you hate my huge authors notes-anything, really!)