Vote! Tell me if I should keep chapters 1-4 up, cause it really is spectacularly horrid writing. Well, not horrid, but I don't like it.

Anyways, I own Harry Potter.

And I lie a lot.

After they got over their shock about their Potions teacher randomly seizing their best friend, Neville and Draco went crazy with worry, not that they'd ever admit it. Sure, weird things seemed to happen around James, but Snape had called him by his name. As far as they knew, the two had never seen each other before-if they had, James probably would have mentioned it while Draco taunted Neville about being afraid of said man. They didn't have potions together, luckily, that probably would not have turned out well. Plus, Snape never called anyone by their first name, not even Draco, who he liked.

But that was irrelevant. The two frienemies were panicking. So they decided to compromise-even though they usually barely talked to each other at all when James was not there to bridge the gap, they needed a partner to figure this out.

Draco was pacing. "How would he know James?" He said, yet again. "It doesn't make sense!"

Neville was sitting and biting his lip. "I don't know. Where did he take James? Where would he take James? Hogwarts?"

Draco stopped suddenly. "Yes! Hogwarts! Here, come on..."

With that, he dragged the poor bewildered Hufflepuff away. "Draco!" Neville protested as said boy practically dragged him down the street. "Where are we going?"

"My father, then Hogwarts." Draco said. "I'll have to make up an excuse..." He muttered. "Why?" Neville asked, still a little confused. Draco shot him an irritated glance. "Why are we going to Hogwarts or why do I need an excuse? Well, I need an excuse so Father won't be mad, well, not ballistic at least, and we need to go to Hogwarts because that's the only logical place Severus Snape would take James. That I can think of, at least."

"Oh...okay." Neville said. "And how exactly are we going to get to Hogwarts?" Draco frowned for a second before brightening and saying, "Floo. There's a room in the dungeons with a fireplace that no one ever visits, we can arrive there."

Neville made a face at the 'dungeons' comment, but this was the best (and only) plan they had, so it would have to do.

Draco tracked down his father-Lucius was just turning into Knockturn-and quickly came up with an excuse. Neville and Draco exchanged grins, then headed to the Leaky Cauldron. A few galleons later, Draco had smoothly walked out of the Hogwarts dungeons and Neville had kind of tumbled onto the floor. Draco snickered at his frienemy and watched with an arched eyebrow as Neville scrambled to his feet, glaring. Draco was the only one of the trio who could land well after traveling by Floo, including James, although James usually landed somewhat upright.

They headed towards Snapes' classroom in unspoken agreement, but he didn't appear to be there. Which put a major hole in their plans, Hogwarts was huge and there was no way they could explore the whole thing before Snape did something dastardly to James, if James was even in Hogwarts. They looked at each other. "What now?" Draco asked. Neville shrugged hopelessly. "I don't know... you think maybe he's in the Headmaster's office?"

Draco shrugged as well and they navigated their way out of the dungeons.

They were quickly and silently heading that way when they passed the Defense room-and they heard voices. Two pairs of eyes widened- there were ways to get to the Headmaster's office without going through this hallway, but the ones that they knew of took forever.

Neville pointed down the hallway then looked questioningly at Draco. Draco appeared to think for a moment before deciding that it was the best way and nodding, looking worried. They exchanged very nervous grins before inching down the hallway-

and being stopped by a sharp voice. "Who's there?"

~*v{o}v*~

Remus Lupin was decidedly nervous.

He was being interrogated by Albus Dumbledore, and he had absolutely no idea how to avoid the questions. Right now he was dodging them fairly well, but he wouldn't last much longer...

Luckily, fate decided to intervene, for at that moment Remus' advanced sense of smell picked up two people outside the room. "Who's there?" He said, partly truly curious and partly just thankful to get out of this interrogation. Albus stopped his questioning abruptly and stared at him. "You hear someone?" Remus nodded quickly, even if it wasn't totally truthful, and walked to the door, silently thanking whoever this was, once again.

Until he saw that it was Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom, and realized that things may just have gotten a whole lot worse.

~*v{o}v*~

Neville and Draco didn't really have a chance to run. They might have, but just being detected like that...well, Professor Lupin always had had an extraordinary ability to know if people were sneaking about, it was just their luck that he caught them.

He walked out of the classroom looking happy, strangely enough, right up until he saw them. At that point he groaned "Oh, great." and something that sounded extraordinarily like, "What exactly did I do to deserve this?"

Headmaster Dumbledore had also walked out of the room, and he looked puzzled at the appearance of two students-and was that a flicker of annoyance? Surely not...

Even if it was, he invited them in politely enough. "Would you like to come in and explain why you are lurking around Hogwarts without any guardians con summer vacation?"

Professor Lupin looked like he was sucking a sour lemon, or perhaps moaning, "Why me?" but he gave a strained smile and said, "Yes, boys, that would be nice.."

Draco and Neville shot panicked looks at each other, but there was really no way out of the situation. They walked in.

~*v{o}v*~

The questioning started almost immediately. "Well?" Headmaster Dumbledore asked, in a warm voice, eyes twinkling.

Neville answered, sending an uncertain look at Draco. "Well, we were with our friend James" - Dumbledore suddenly looked very interested indeed, and Remus buried his face in his hands- "And he bumped into Severus Snape, and Snape pretty much kidnapped him, and we thought the only place he would take James was Hogwarts, so we Flooed here to look for him, cause James is homeschooled and we were really worried when a teacher randomly kidnapped our friend that we didn't think he'd seen before for no reason." This had been said in rather a rush, and Neville was looking at Dumbledore hopefully. "Have you seen him?"

Dumbledore appeared lost in thought. "What does James look like?" He asked. Neville grinned nervously. "He has really messy black hair and these huge green eyes, and round glasses. Umm...his robes aren't very noticeable, just usually black, and..."

Draco, who nervous himself, was stepping on Nevilles' toes, hard. "Hey!" Neville yelped, glaring, but Draco drew a finger across his throat, and Neville fell silent. None of which was lost on the Headmaster. Or Remus, for that matter, who was pretty sure he was screwed at this point.

"Yes, I have seen him." Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling full speed. "Your friend is fine, probably at his house at the moment. You should probably go home now, I'm sure your families are worried about you. I am also sure Remus will allow you to use his fireplace." Remus nodded quickly. Draco scowled, but Neville just looked relieved to have gotten out of the situation without punishment.

They left, though not without some suspicious glances thrown at Professor Lupin and Headmaster Dumbledore.

~*v{o}v*~

The duo tumbled clumsily and walked gracefully, respectively, out of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron. They looked at each other for a minute.

Draco said, "What was that all about? Why did Professor Lupin look so nervous?"

Neville shrugged.

They looked at each other for a minute.

Draco said, "What are we going to do now?"

Neville shrugged.

They looked at each other for a minute.

Draco said, "James is probably hooked up to the Floo."

Neville nodded.

They looked at each for a minute.

Draco said, "I think 'James Whites' living room would probably work."

Neville shrugged. "Okay, let's try it."

At which point they tried to Floo to "James Whites' living room."

It didn't work.

They looked at each other for a minute.

Neville said, "Didn't he say his dad's name was Patrick that one time?"

At which point they tried to Floo to "Patrick Whites' living room."

And suddenly they were hurtling through the fireplace.

~*v{o}v*~

Harry Potter was pacing around in his room.

He had suggested that he and Sirius go to bed, because it had seemed like a whole lot longer than an hour that they'd been waiting around doing nothing. Except it wasn't, it was like two in afternoon now, and he was bored.

Until he heard something from the living room that sounded suspiciously like the Floo network.

He and Sirius were connected to the Floo network, under Patrick White, but it was charmed to not let anyone through without permission other than Remus, Sirius, and Harry. So they were probably stuck in the fireplace right now, whoever they were.

Harry hurried out to the living room, glad for something to do.

"WHO DARES DISTURB THE HOME OF THE GREAT-" At this point Harry caught sight of his friends hanging out the fireplace. "Oh, it's you guys. How'd you find my house anyways?"

Draco snapped, "It doesn't matter, just let us out of here! My robes are getting all dirty!"

Harry chuckled. "Now why would I ever do that? Tell me why you're here first."

Draco growled. "We were worried when Snape kidnapped you and we went to Hogwarts and Professor Lupin and Dumbledore caught us and Dumbledore asked us what you looked like and then told us you were fine and had probably went home and then we just Flooed 'Patrick White's living room," because Neville remembered that's your dad's name. Happy?"

Harry, who looked a little shaken at the mention of Dumbledore, but tried to shrug nonchalantly anyways. "Sure." Draco and Neville tumbled out of the fireplace. Draco was glaring, Neville just looked a little sick from all the Flooing he'd been doing today.

Surprisingly, it was Neville who spoke first. "Alright, I think you owe us an explanation. We've Flooed-" Neville paused a moment to think- "Three times today, not to mention just going to the alley, and I hate Flooing." He glared at Harry.

Harry sighed, and collapsed into a conveniently placed arm chair. He gestured to two other conveniently placed armchairs. "C'mon, sit, otherwise you'll hit your head on the floor when you faint and I'll have to deal with the wrath of two influential pureblood families."

Neville and Draco exchanged confused looks before sitting obediently.

"Okay." Harry sighed. "Wellll... I'm Harry Potter, my godfather is Sirius Black, he's not actually evil, except he's an illegal animagus, he's sleeping in the next room, he never killed anyone, Remus Lupin is one of his best friends. Oh, and Peter Pettigrew never died."

Both friends were glaring at him. "Nice try." Neville said. "Horribly unrealistic, but I have to award points for creativity."

Harry smirked. "Oh?"

He whipped out a wand from some obscure pocket, pointed it at his own forehead, muttered something under his breath, and swept his messy black hair off his forehead.

Which had suddenly gained a lightning bolt scar.

~*v{o}v*~

Neither of his friends fainted, happily enough.

They were, however, speechless for a good ten minutes. In which Harry pretty much told them the same story he'd told Dumbledore, with a few added points of traveling life.

Finally, Draco managed to mutter, "Father is going to murder me when he finds out..."

And once again, stuff happens that is funny.