Chapter 2: The Whomping Willow
The last week or so spent at home was not a peasant experience for the members of the Dursley family; main reason being that Vernon, Dudley and Diana were always engulfed in a glaring competition, if not a full out shouting match about the red heads' new boyfriend, to which neither males of the household approved.
Heidi didn't look bother by the fact. She told her mother that she had anticipated this a long time ago and had proceeded to explain all the awkward and amusing situations the two had undergone together throughout the last year. After the…captivating story, Petunia had agreed that the two had gone through quite a lot, but didn't think they were fit to date one another. Heidi had assured her they wouldn't get pass the first week, something which soothed Petunia's worries, because if there was one thing she trusted above all else in the world was her daughter's judgment.
Dudley and Vernon tried their best to act civil in the last two days that they were spending together, but failed miserably. Dudley, having played the older brother figure for almost all his life, and thus assuming the role of the annoying brother who didn't let his sisters date, was finding it hard to accept that his duty was over so soon, and could not stand in the same room as Diana without feeling a deep sense of betrayal and scream his frustration out on the girls that made him feel like he failed at his task.
Luckily for the girls (or not), Dudley wasn't staying for the last day home, since the mother of one of his friends had offered to drive her son and Dudley up to school, because Petunia and Vernon had to take the girls to London the next day.
Dudley was ready the next morning; his bags all packed, his uniform in place, his cane underneath his left arm and his hat standing firmly on his round head, a resolute expression was carved on his face as he waited for Madam Stain to arrive.
Petunia was crying softly in her napkin on the couch, Heidi was standing right next to her, trying to shush her up while Vernon surveyed the window like a hawk. Diana slowly made her way into the room and headed for the armchair in which Dudley's stiff figure sat.
"D, are we gonna part on bad terms?" Diana asked her brother in a sad tone.
Dudley turned his impassive expression towards her and sighed when he laid eyes on her tearful face. "No, we aren't," he said looking disgruntled all of a sudden. "But you better promise me you'll be careful! Or else we will reunite on bad terms!"
"You have my word," Diana assured with a warm smile. "If Draco get's cocky, I'll dump him before you can say Chocolate!" Dudley seemed satisfied with the answer (for now at least), and rose up from his seat to hugged his sister, who eagerly returned the gesture.
One hour later, the Stain woman did show up to take Dudley and promised she'd make sure Dudley and her son, John, arrived on time. Petunia was a wrecking mess long after Dudley was out the door and Vernon looked slightly sad that night; he even forgot to reprimand Diana for her excuse of a boyfriend at diner.
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The first of September had finally arrived and much to the girls' displeasure, they were running late for two reasons: one being that fact that Heidi had actually trusted Diana when the red head said she was packed and ready to leave, and the other being the fact that Vernon was not to eager to get to the station, seeing as Diana had unfortunately let it slip that Malfoy would be waiting for them at the platform. The lengthy one hour ride actually took half an hour extra to make and it would have taken longer had Heidi not snapped at her father and assured she wouldn't come back next year if he continued with the child-like behavior.
At long last, the agonizing trip had ended and the girls managed to rush out of the car and bolt for the station with five minutes to spare before the train left. They kissed their parents good-bye at the entrance and ran towards the barrier knocking head first into Ron Weasley.
"Sorry, Ron!" Heidi hastily apologized and picked herself off the floor.
"Hey! Fancy seeing you here," Ron smiled at the twins. "A little late don't you think?"
"Yeah, right, like you're the one to talk!" Diana huffed and ran for the barrier at top speed, and… crashed straight into it!
"DIAND!!" Ron and Heidi were at her side within seconds.
"What happened?" Heidi asked puzzled.
"Are you alright?" Ron quizzed, concern written on his freckled face.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Diana assured.
"What in blazes d'you think you're doing?" a guard came up to them looking furious by the mess and racket they had caused.
"My sister just got out of the hospital after having her legs paralyzed for ten days, so you should understand if she's a little clumsy on her feet," Heidi lied, with an offended glare carved on her face.
"Oh, I'm sorry miss," the guard hastily apologized. "Do you need any help?"
"No thank you, everything is under control," Heidi replied tersely and turned back to Diana; the guard left a few moments after.
"You were hospitalized?" asked Ron bewildered and held out his hand for Diana.
"No, Heidi just likes lying," Diana said and took Ron's offered hand.
"Well, it would have looked dumb if I said she lost control of the trolley, wouldn't it?" Heidi answered in a sarcastic voice. "The barrier…" she mussed.
"Yeah, what happened to it?" asked Ron, while taking a peek around.
"It's sealed itself," Heidi answered. "We can't get through!"
"We can't get through either way, since the Muggles are still watching us," whispered Ron through gritted teeth.
Diana looked up at the gigantic clock and then looked around at the crowd that was still watching them and then realized it was because of Blanche who was shrieking madly in her cage a few strides away from them.
"Blanche, baby!" Diana ran up to her owl and tried to shush her up while Heidi and Ron tried to push through the wall with all their might, but to no avail.
A few seconds later the clock struck eleven o clocks, and a resounding ding echoed throughout the whole station, driving the assembled crowd back into motion, as everybody started running off in different directions complaining about stupid kids and their distracting tricks.
Ron, Heidi and Diana shared a panicked look.
"We missed the train…" Ron blurred out seemingly in shock.
"And the barrier still won't budge!" whined Heidi.
"My mom and dad are in there," said Ron looking desperate as he tried to push through the solid wall. "What if they can't get out?"
"What are we going to do?" asked Diana in a scared tone. "What if they'll expel us from Hogwarts!"
"Oh, of course they won't!" snapped Heidi. "Let's head back outside; maybe mom and dad haven't left for home yet!"
"Are you kidding me, I saw the car pull out of the drive-hold when I entered the station," said Diana.
"The car!" exclaimed Ron, eyes gleaming madly.
"What about it?" asked Diana baffled.
"We can fly the car to Hogwarts!" said Ron eagerly.
"What the hell are you talking about Weasley?" inquired Heidi.
"My dad, he charmed our old Ford Anglia so it could fly!" Ron told the twins.
"He what?" asked Heidi skeptically.
"Really?" asked Diana eagerly. "You own a flying car?!"
"Yes," Ron nodded vigorously. "Come with me and I'll show you!" Ron grabbed a hold of his trunk and hoisted it towards the exit. Heidi and Diana shared a puzzled look but followed him outside the station and onto the side road where an old Ford Anglia was parked.
"Can you fly it?" asked Diana excited.
"No problem," winked Ron and used his wand to unlock the cavernous trunk. The kids heaved the luggage in and the two girls climbed in the back seats with Ruby and Blanche, while Ron climbed up front and asked: "Check that no one's watching!" as he started the car.
"We're clear," said Diana.
Ron pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard. The car around them vanished, and so did they. The girls could feel the seat vibrating beneath them, hear the engine, feel the owl cages on their knees and the soft seats on which they were standing, but for all they could see they had become a pair of eyeballs, floating a few feet above the ground in a dingy street full of parked cars.
"Let's go," came Ron's voice from somewhere up front.
And within seconds, the London streets with its spectacular buildings and crowded alleyways were left behind and the ever blue sky with a few clouds here and there surrounded them on all sides.
"Wow!" Diana whispered in amazement. Heidi's breath was caught in her throat as she gazed upon the scene before her with barely contained enthusiasm; however their thrill was short lived as the car gave a sudden roar and in the next moment they were visible again.
"Uh-oh! It's faulty," said Ron as he desperately pressed the Invisibility Booster.
"Move it Weasley or the Muggles might see us!" hissed Heidi furiously in his ear.
"Right," Ron nodded and slammed his foot on the acceleration handle. They rocketed straight into the clouds which encircled them on all sides effectively covering them from view.
"What do we do now?" asked Diana concerned.
"We need to see where the train is to know which direction to follow," said Ron.
"Dive back down again; quick!" Heidi said. Ron nodded and dove beneath the cloud. The three hastily turned their heads in all directions searching for the train.
"There!" yelled Diana. "Right up ahead!"
"Due north," said Ron, checking the compass on the dashboard. "Okay, we'll just have to check on it every half hour or so — hold on —" And they shot up through the clouds.
"All we've got to worry about now are airplanes," said Ron jovially.
"You know, I just realized," said Heidi looking slightly confused. "If we took the car, how are your parents going to get back home?"
"They don't need the car," said Ron, waving a dismissive hand. "They know how to Apparate. They only bother with Floo powder and the car because we're underage and we're not allowed to Apparate yet."
"Apparate as in that whole pop from one place to another kind of thing?" asked Diana.
"Yes," confirmed Ron. "Have you ever Apparated before?"
"Side along Apparition," Heidi said. "McGonagall Apparated us from our house to Diagon Alley."
"Really? How was that like?" Ron asked in amazement.
"Disgusting," Diana said appalled. "I vomited the first time."
"Oh…"
"I'm sending Ruby down to Hermione so she knows what's happened to us," Heidi said as she pulled out a piece of parchment from her pocket and scribbled a quick note. "Come here you," she reached in the cage to pull out Ruby but Diana stopped her.
"Shouldn't you use Blanche instead?" asked Diana looking doubtfully at the tiny, energetic owl that was banging its head on the cage bars.
"Ruby is perfectly capable of delivering a message!" Heidi snapped. "Besides, the train is just below us!"
"If your owl get's killed by the current, don't blame it on me," Diana said and folded her hands stubbornly.
"She'll be fine!" Heidi assured and pulled out the tiny little bugger. "Ruby baby; down there in that train is Hermione, you remember her, right? Take this note to her." She tied the note to the bouncy owl's leg and the next time Ron dove below the clouds Heidi released the tiny thing, but soon wished she didn't as the owl was whooshed away by the current and sent spinning backwards like a baseball.
The tiny creature came to a stop in mid-air, looking dizzily around, then sprinted after the Hogwarts express and entered the train through an open window. It searched through the compartment for its designated pray, hitting a good number of doors and window-frames along the way, up until it finally found her.
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Hermione Granger was engulfed in a heated debate with Neville Longbottom regarding a plant that they had stumbled across at the Nature's Variation, exhibition.
"Seriously Neville! There is nothing written in the text book about Violes being poisonous!" Hermione argued.
"And I'm telling you they are! I have about two of them in my greenhouse, and I always keep them in a magical net so that no one can touch them, ever since my dog Bony died!" Neville countered, getting slightly desperate; there was just no convincing the girl of something if you didn't shove a text book in her hand that had the information written in black and white. "And besides, we won't learn at Hogwarts about them! They're barely used in Potions and the likes."
"But, I'm sure I read about them somewhere!" protested Hermione.
"I can assure you it wasn't in any school book," Neville said slightly impatient. "Tell you what, why don't you and the twins come and visit me next summer; I'll show you the plant then!" Neville suggested to which Hermione nodded eagerly.
"That sounds like a splendid idea Neville! Now that you mention it, where are the twins?" Hermione asked while looking around as if hoping the two would pop out of thin air.
"No idea," said Neville. "We waited for them on the platform but they never showed, so you said we should head inside and wait for them on the train, remember?"
"Don't you think it's kind of odd that they didn't show up?" asked Neville. "I mean, we did agree to search for each other on the train, didn't we?"
"You're right," nodded Hermione. "Maybe we should go look for them."
Neville nodded and rose from his seat. "I'll go, you wait here incase they turn up." He wasn't half way towards the door when Draco Malfoy pulled it open and stepped in, Crabbe and Goyle tailing behind him.
"Where is Diana?" the blond asked upon entering.
"We don't know," Hermione answered. "Neville was just about to go looking for her."
"I've searched this whole bloody train," said the blond, in an annoyed tone. "I've even asked those annoying two colleagues of yours if they knew anything, but to no avail!"
"But that can't be right!" muttered Hermione. "They have to be somewhere on this train! Right?"
"I just told you-" Draco began to say, but his speech was cut short as a tiny little owl collided with his back, staggered slightly and then rushed straight into Hermione's outstretched hands.
"Ruby! What happened to you?" Hermione asked looking at the tiny bugger in concern.
"Is that Heidi's owl?" asked Neville.
"Yeah," said Hermione. The tiny owl hopped in front of her to grab her attention and stuck out its leg. "You have a message? From Heidi?" the bushy haired girl took the parchment from the tiny owl's leg and unfolded it.
"What does it say?" asked Draco impatiently as he watched Hermione's eyes widen significantly.
"The barrier wouldn't let them through! They said they'll see us at Hogwarts."
"What do you mean: the barrier wouldn't let them through?" Draco asked skeptically.
"It says so right here!" Hermione said and handed him the letter.
Draco took the piece of parchment and read it in a haste. "Bloody hell!" he mumbled and stalked out of the compartment without another word.
Hermione and Neville turned to look quizzically at each other.
"How do they manage to get in so much trouble," Hermione asked and sat down with a sigh.
"I have no idea." Neville replied. "But how do you think they'll get to Hogwarts?"
Hermione shrugged and turned her head towards the wrecked looking owl in her lap. "Thank you," she whispered. "It was very brave of you to come all the way down here and deliver the message." the tiny bugger hooted in content and snuggled close to Hermione before going to sleep.
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A good four hours passed by in which the twins and Ron chatted merrily about anything that came to mind; Ron for one was interested to know everything about the two girls in the back seat and kept popping out questions that rang from, "what's your favorite color?" to "how was your summer?", the girls answered every one of them, just to keep the boredom from settling in and quizzed Ron about his own family in return, a subject that he didn't look to kin on breaching, but did so reluctantly after some coaching on Heidi's part.
Heidi concluded that Ron had a huge inferiority complex and was somewhat ashamed of his family for being poor, while Diana got quite bored of the everyday questions and started grilling the boy about more intimate matters, like: "what type of girls do you like?", "do you have a girlfriend?", "have you ever been kissed?" and the like, until the poor boy was redder then the setting sun.
"Can't be much further, can it?" choked Ron, eager to get the humiliating questions over and done with. "Let's check on the train again!"
Ron lowered the car from among the masses of clouds into the blinding darkness that had fallen below and narrowed his eyes to see the red train still gliding underneath them. Satisfied with the notion that he was on the right track, he slammed his foot on the acceleration and stirred the car upwards, but as he did so, the engine began to whine.
The twins and Ron exchanged nervous looks.
"It's probably just tired," said Ron. "It's never been this far before…"
The girls nodded and the three pretended not to notice the whining increase in volume as the sky grew steadily darker.
"Not far," said Ron, more to the car than to the twins, "not far now," and he patted the dashboard nervously.
The next time Ron lowered the car, a cheer of joy escaped the group as they stumbled across Hogwarts castle standing tall on the horizon; its massive form coming as a welcomed sight for the passengers of the car, which were slowly beginning to think they would not finish the journey in one piece, as the car started shuddering and loosing speed.
"Come on," Ron said cajolingly, giving the steering wheel a little shake, "nearly there, come on -"
The engine groaned. Narrow jets of steam were issuing from under the hood. Diana found herself gripping the edges of her seat very hard as they flew toward the lake. Heidi however had pulled out her wand and was pointing it at the dashboard.
"What are you doing?" asked Ron in a panicked voice.
"This wand charges me up with energy everyday, if I can just get it to do the same with the car!" Heidi pressed her wand on the dashboard and willed the wand to charge up the car. She had no idea if it would work, but, hey, it was worth a try.
A slight silver essence flooded out of the tip of Heidi's wand and sank down into the car, much to the kids' surprise. The car suddenly stopped staggering and straightened up. Ron and Diana looked ready to cry out in relief, but Heidi glared angrily at them and growled "Move it!" through gritted teeth.
"Sorry," Ron muttered and took control of the steering wheel. He slowly guided the car down while looking around for a safe place to parch, up until he found one near a thick tree.
"Hold on," he said as he steered the car towards the place. They landed neatly next to the massive old tree and all the kids released a breath of relief as the car's engine came to a halt.
"Well, that was easy," Ron said cheerfully. The words were barely out of his mouth as something hit Diana's side of the car and sent her flying into her sister, just as another blow slammed viciously into the roof.
"What's happen —?" Ron tried to ask but another vicious slam knocked into the car's roof repeatedly.
The kids lifted their heads to look as a branch larger then a piton rose up into the air and smashed down on the car's front with a deafening CRACK, causing black smoke to rise from the shattered front; it seemed that the tree was attacking them. Blanche was shrieking furiously as another thick branch came crashing down on them.
"Run for it!" Ron shouted and tried to open the door, but unfortunately for him, a branch chose that precise moment to knock into his door and knocked him towards the passengers' seat in the process.
"We're done for!" he moaned as the ceiling sank. Heidi sent him a pointed glare and managed to squeeze her way up in front where she pressed her wand on the now wretched board and thought I want you to head back! Away from here!
The engine gave a sudden roar as it ignited and the car shot backwards at neck-break speed. The kids were propelled towards the front thanks to the abrupt movement and Heidi ended up banging her head against the windshield while Diana was pushed on top of Ron, who knocked head-on in the front board.
"That," panted Ron, "was close. Well done, car —"
The car however, had reached the end of its tether. With two sharp clunks, the doors flew open and Diana felt her seat tip sideways; next thing she knew she was sprawled on the damp ground. Loud thuds told her that the car was ejecting their luggage from the trunk; Blanche's cage flew through the air and burst open; she rose out of it with an angry screech and sped off toward the castle without a backward look. Then, dented, scratched, and steaming, the car rumbled off into the darkness, its rear lights blazing angrily.
"Come back!" Ron yelled after it. "Dad'll kill me!"
But the car disappeared from view with one last snort from its wrecked engine.
"Heidi!" Diana's voice drew Ron's attention from the retreating vehicle.
"What happened?" Ron asked nervously.
"She's bleeding!" Diana said in a terrified voice.
The tree gave a threatening crack as it continued to flay its branches at them, unfortunately drawing the red haired girl's attention onto it.
"YOU!" Diana growled in little suppressed anger. "You'll pay for this!" she said and lung at the tree with the soul intention of tearing it apart from head to toe. Ron however tackled her to the ground before she could get too far.
"We have to take your sister to madam Pomfrey!" the boy yelled in her ear. "Then we can come back for it!" he assure. Diana shot another menacing look the tree's way and then picked herself of the ground, nodding curtly.
"I'll be back for you!" she promised and moved towards her sister.
Ron lifted Heidi up in his arms and Diana proceeded to levitate the luggage and so, together, they made their way up towards the castle.
The walk to the castle wasn't as easy as the kids thought it would be. The cold, chilly air, whipped at their faces, as the damp grass filled their shoes with fresh dirt, making it harder to walk, and despite their luck of landing on Hogwarts grounds, there was quite a while before they managed to reach the entrance doors.
As they entered the castle, they came across a face that neither one of the kids was to kin on seeing so soon in the year, Professor Severus Snape.
Snape was the Potions master, the most hated teacher around school, and for good reasons. The Gryffindors hated him because he was quite unfair towards them in class, and always favored the Slytherins; Diana, on the other hand, hated him for teaching the dreaded subject in which they had to chop, slice and stew poor animals to make disgusting potions that most of the times seemed to just make you even sicker with their foul taste.
Snape took one look at them and lifted Heidi from Ron's arms, while telling Diana to leave the luggage, then ordered them to follow him. The two did so with barely contained repugnance for the teacher in front. Snape led them up towards the hospital wing where he left Heidi, Diana and Ron in Madam Pomfrey's able hands.
Diana didn't actually realize when Snape left, her soul worry at the time being her pale looking sister who was still bleeding as Madam Pomfrey sat her in one of the hospital beds.
"Take a seat dears, you look like you could use some patching up yourselves," the Medi-witch said kindly and started fussing over Heidi.
"Do you believe it?" Ron asked bewildered. "Snape caught us in the act and didn't slice up or heads for it?!"
"Ha?" Diana asked confused and looked around to notice that Snape had vanished while she wasn't paying attention. "Yeah, that's something all right."
Madam Pomfrey finished patching up the twins and was half way into finishing Ron, when Professor McGonagall entered the room looking like the sky had fallen on her head; Snape was no where in sight.
"Severus has so gallantly informed me of your flamboyant arrival, earlier tonight," she said in barely restrained anger and tossed the Evening Prophet at them. "Care to explain!" it wasn't a request.
Ron launched into the story, starting with the barrier at the station refusing to let them through.
"— so we had no choice, Professor, we couldn't get on the train."
"Why didn't you send us a letter by owl? I believe you both have owls?" Professor McGonagall said coldly to Diana and pointed at her sister as well.
Diana stared at her, a guilty expression clouding her pretty face.
"Am," she swallowed hard trying to clear the lump that was slowly taking shape in her throat. "I didn't…think about it?" she answered uncertainly.
"That," said Professor McGonagall, "is obvious. But Heidi! I would have expected better from her!"
The ember eyes girl gave a sudden groan and slowly opened her eyes, looking around confused. "Where am I?" she asked baffled.
"You are in the hospital wing my dear," Madam Pomfrey scurried to her side. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I just knocked my head against the wall," the girl answered snaking her head slightly.
There was a knock at the door and a few moments later, in stepped Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, looking more grim then Diana had ever seen him.
There was a long silence, interrupted only by Heidi's moans of discomfort as madam Pomfrey fussed over her cracked scull, before she nodded her head, satisfied with the girl's condition.
"You have a concussion Missis Potter, and I would recommend that you lay off anything stressful for the next couple of days and you should be just fine. I'll give you half-an-hour to sort things out Headmaster, and then I want that girl in bed," said Madam Pomfrey and retreated into her living quarter.
Dumbledore nodded slightly then turned to the kids and said, "Please explain why you did this."
Diana was flushed with embarrassment at hearing the disappointment in his voice, while Heidi, short tempered as she was, snapped at the occupants in the room.
"It's not our bloody fault that whoever made those stupid wards that led to the platform didn't do his job right! And I sure as HELL don't want to hear you complain about me not trying to send you letters, when I've been trying to do just that for the past couple of weeks!"
Both the Headmaster and McGonagall looked in shock at her.
"You've been trying to contact me, Missis Potter?" asked Dumbledore surprised.
"Damn well I have! FIVE letters, sent specifically to you and three to her-" she pointed at Minerva "-and not a single reply! You'll bloody well have to excuse me for not trusting the owl service much with solving the problem at hand!" she glared defiantly up at the two Professors, as if daring them to speak, but a sharp pain erupted in her head and the girl covering her bandage with her arms as a loud moan of pain tore out of her throat.
Diana was at her side immediately and Madam Pomfrey stormed into the room, carrying a bottle of potion in her hands, while looking disapprovingly at the two teachers.
"Missis Potter! I told you not to exert yourself, didn't I!" the nurse snapped. "Here, drink this!" she brought the bottle to the girl's mouth and prompted her to drink it.
"Heidi," Dumbledore's soft, grandfatherly voice brought the girls' attention upon him. "Why did you try to contact me during the summer holidays?" the elder wizard asked kindly.
"Because someone was blocking our mail," Diana answered. "The only reason we knew that was because we called Hermione a couple of times and she told us she'd sent us a bunch of letters, and that no reply came back, though we tried to owl her too."
"Then I decided to send a message to Hogwarts and see if that would do any good," continued Heidi. "It obviously didn't!" she shot her sister a concerned glance before turning to look Dumbledore straight in the eye and said: "And then, Dobby the house-elf came to our house and said that he was the one doing all that as some lame attempt at protecting us, because apparently, terrible things are supposed to be happening at Hogwarts this year, and he didn't want us to return." Diana had a god-smacked expression on her face as she listened to her sister talk, while Dumbledore's eyes clouded with a slight trace of concern.
"He didn't tell me what exactly was the terrible thing that would happen, but he did say that he had known about it for weeks and that it didn't have anything to do with Voldemort. And I'm willing to bet he was the one who closed off the barrier at Kings Cross to keep us from catching the train."
Silence followed the girl's statement as everybody in the room was lost it their own thought.
"Why didn't you tell me anything about this?" asked Diana, betrayal ringing clearly in her voice.
Heidi sighed and turned to give her sister a hard glare. "It's animals we're talking about! You would have defended that elf with your life; maybe even listened to it!"
"No I wouldn't!" Diana protested, but Heidi didn't look convinced.
"Heidi, Diana, I believe we can continue this discussion amiably, there is no point in arguing," Dumbledore said patiently. The twins glared for another moment at one another, then turned to look expectantly at Dumbledore.
"Heidi, do you happen to know to which family the house-elf belongs to?" Dumbledore asked.
Heidi started chewing her bottom lip as she shot another concerned glance in Diana's direction, then decided that she'd rather die then tell her sister the truth (not while she was dating Malfoy at least), so she turned back to Dumbledore and bore her eyes into the elder wizard's twinkling bleu, constantly repeating the word Malfoy, and hoping that by some miracle the older wizard would understand, as her lips moved to mount the word: "No."
Dumbledore nodded, his expression blank, but for some reason, Heidi could feel that he had somehow received her message.
"Very well, miss Potter. I shall leave you to rest." The Headmaster rose from his seat and motioned for Minerva to follow him. "Com my dear Professor, I believe the children are entitled to a few moments of respite after the trilling adventures of tonight."
"You aren't gonna punish us?" asked Ron befuddled.
"No mister Weasley," answered Dumbledore. "I believe that given the situation in which you were placed, it would be wrong of me to punish you; though you could have waited for your parents and discuss this out with them; but I trust you will be more precautious next time." With that said, Dumbledore left, McGonagall trailing slightly behind him.
"Can you believe that?" asked Ron gleefully. "We got off with no punishment!"
"Of course we did," Heidi smirked imperiously. "I've gotten out of worse with fare less plausible lies."
"You lied?" asked Ron incredulously.
"No, she actually told the truth this time," Diana assured.
There was a knock at the door and before a bushy haired girl, and a plump boy made their way in the infirmary.
"Finally found you!" sighed Hermione in relief.
"Hey, Mione! Had a safe journey?" Diana asked jovially.
"Of course I did!" The girls snapped. "Unlike you two I took the train!"
"Before you start yelling, let us explain," said Heidi in a tired voice.
The next half an hour or so was spent explaining the same story they had told Dumbledore, up until Madam Pomfrey came in the room and scurried the kids off to bed. Diana staid with Heidi in the hospital wing, while Ron went back to the common room with Hermione and Neville. There he was congratulated by most of his house and given a talking-to by Percy.