A/N: Thank you for a favorite and two follows! Here is the second chapter, where you'll be able to meet up with Ron and Hermione. Also, I'm accepting character submissions until February 14, 2015. Please tell me the name, age, personality, and looks of your character. I may or may not accept. :) Review! Review! Review!

Chapter 2

Harry Potter opened his eyes, and almost fell off his bed.

"Hello, dear," a female voice drawled. Harry blinked once, twice, and then pinched himself. The woman cackled. "You aren't dreaming. If you were you would be able to get out of this. Now move, I already have your little friends." Not wanting to possibly risk his life to his long time enemy, Harry obliged grudgingly.

"Go! Get on with it!" Bellatrix said, hitting Harry's back with her wand. He tried to refrain from making any noise against it, as it was a risky thing to test the woman.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked slowly and carefully, as they stepped into the night and a purple triple-decker bus appeared in front of them. Bellatrix merely laughed, and Harry could smell the disgusting stench of her breath behind him.

"Go. Get on the bus." Harry stepped up the three bus steps and slid past heavy black curtains, onto the first floor of the night bus. There were no beds even though it was night, but there were heaps of blankets on the floor. With a lurch of the bus, Harry shot forward and hit his head on the metal wall as he slid down the floor.

"Harry!" he heard a friendlier voice exclaim. A small hand helped him up, partially scarred. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Hermione. Are you alright?" he said, untangling himself to look at his friend's face. Ron was standing slightly behind the bushy-haired girl.

"I'm fine, just a little shaken."

"And how are you, Ron?"

"Bloody scared, of course. I was hoping that she was dead after Mum killed her, but no. She had to be alive," Ron replied. He opened his mouth a little wider for breath, but before he could continue ranting Hermione placed a hand on his.

"Yes, well. If I can survive seeing her again I'm sure you can," she said. That immediately shut him up, as the memory of what Hermione had been through because of Bellatrix washed over them all like a tidal wave of misery.

"So, I assume we're going to try to get out of here before she has the chance to take us anywhere and probably murder us on the spot?" Harry whispered, grabbing onto a windowsill as the bus lurched again. Hermione and Ron looked at each other, and Harry had the uncomfortable feeling that he didn't know something. He was, of course, correct.

"We already have a plan," Ron responded in the same tone. "You see, there's an emergency door at the back of the bus like there always is. It sets off an alarm, but if we apparate in time we might be able to outrun her."

"Where do we apparate to?" Harry asked. "She obviously knows where we all live now, and I'm going to assume nothing's normal since a dead person is alive."

"I was thinking…it's very dangerous but…" Hermione stammered, looking out the window with her eyebrows and forehead creased.

"Spit it out, Hermione!"

She looked a little shocked. "Right. Well, I was thinking we could try, try to go to Australia. It's very dangerous as it's cross-continental, but she won't suspect us there. And maybe we can try to find my parents there."

"We can try, I guess. Do you have dittany in case somebody get splinched?" Ron flinched slightly.

"No, but I know of this hospital type place, a little bit like St. Mungo's, and maybe we can try for there. I'm pretty sure that they'll offer us a place to stay, at least, until we figure out what to do." She bit her lip and looked out the window some more. Suddenly, the bus lumbered to a stop.

"Looks like we better get moving," Ron spoke up. There was a clatter of heels and the curtains on the other end of the bus shifted. "Run!"

The three wizards hopped out of the door of the bus, landing on both feet a few feet below the floor of the purple triple-decker. Hermione grabbed onto each boys' sleeve and spun around quickly, and Harry had the sudden feeling that he was being squeezed through a tube. Whereas he usually came back to reality just as he was about to suffocate, this time it didn't happen.

In a panic, for his brain was still working fine, Harry closed his eyes and tried to breath, though more breath escaped then came in. Oh no…this was suffocating him! Hermione must've done something wrong!

And in a second, it was over. Harry collapsed on a cold, white tiled floor and tried to blink away the black dots clouding his vision. He was gasping, unable to get enough of the crisp air now invading his previously deprived lungs.

Strong arms lifted him up and placed him in a chair of sorts. Faster than his brain could process, the man was being pushed along at a quick speed. He closed his eyes, as there was no use in them since he was partially blind (more blind than usual, at least.) Wind whipped at his bangs. And Harry Potter lost consciousness.

-Just a Line Break-

"Welcome to St. Rue's, where your safety is our priority!" That was perhaps the cheesiest thing Harry had ever heard in his life, but it was what he heard as he blinked and woke up in a starch white room on a hospital bed. He groaned slightly, shifting over and blinking a few times to let his eyes adjust to the light.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Potter?" a girl's voice game. She was probably twenty or so, and leaning over Harry. She had the classic white nurse's uniform, with a red cross on the head piece formed by two intersecting wands. Her brown eyes were smiling like her bright white smile, and her blond hair was pulled into a perfect bun. Like a young, smiley McGonagoll maybe.

"Well for someone who just almost died, I think I'm doing fine," he answered. Maybe it was a little snappy, but Harry really didn't care as he just wanted help—and to know where Ron and Hermione were and what they were doing.

His nurse giggled girlishly, but it wasn't stupid like Umbridge's giggles. "I'm Melanie, and I'll be taking care of you today," she told him in an Australian accent. "Anything I can help you with, Mr. Potter?"

"Where are my friends?" Harry asked without hesitation. Melanie smiled at him briefly, then walked away, to where an intercom sat on the wall. High-tech wizards. We should move to Australia, Harry though. Melanie spoke briefly into the intercom, and a few minutes later Ron and Hermione appeared. They each took a seat by Harry's bed, and he sat up to greet them.

"What happened, anyway?" Ron asked. Melanie smiled at him, causing Ron to go bright red. It also earned him a smack on the arm from Hermione.

"Well, Long Distance Apparation is a dangerous thing. You were in the state of mid-apparation for an extended amount of time, causing you to become short of breath. Luckily, you three are safe though," Melanie explained. Ron looked confused, as did Harry.

"Danger achieved, but we're alright," Hermione explained simply. Melanie smiled, a little less sweetly this time, but all confusion was aside.

"So, what do we do now?" Harry asked. Melanie walked over to the intercom again, her white heels click-clacking on the floor.

A few seconds later, she walked back over. "You will be sent to the hotel a few streets down. It's all wizards, don't worry. You'll be allowed to stay there for two weeks. Usually it's only one but," (Melanie smiled at Harry, cocking her head to the side a little bit) "for people who saved the world we allow rules to break a little bit."

"So, we can leave now?" Hermione asked with a fake smile.

"Yes," Melanie growled. "Though we can always—"

"No, no. We'll be going." And the three were escorted into several cars and sent to a hotel called 'The Lilivolkla Inn and Suites'.