Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling, nor will I ever be. Therefore, I do not own Harry Potter or it's characters... Just wanted to make that clear... haha

This story is rated T for foul language

Chapter 29

Ari's POV

Brittney and I tug open the compartment door, only to be greeted by the sounds of laughter that fill the compartment. I look at Brittney quizzically, then turn my attention back to the boys. "What's so funny?"

As soon as they hear my voice, they stop laughing and look at Brittney and me. Eli clears his throat and wipes a finger under his eye. "It's nothing. By the way, I hope you don't mind, Freddie told me about everything about the deaths of your friends… And piled on top of all of this… I have no idea how you're going to do it Ari. I'm so sorry…"

I roll my eyes and flip him off. "You and your sympathy can both drop dead."

Eli looks at James and Freddie then they all burst into a fit of laughter again. Brittney rolls her eyes as she walks in and takes a seat next to Freddie. I shut the door behind me and sit down on the floor, closing my eyes and leaning back against the wall as I wait for the boys to calm down.

The next thing I know, I'm being poked awake by James. I rub my eyes and look around. "What's going on?"

James smirks as he helps me off the ground. "We're at Hogwarts. Well, we're at the station. Now we have to work on sneaking Eli and Bri into the school."

I straighten up and nod, completely waking up as soon as he says we are at the school. "Okay. Do you want to give them the cloak? Actually, you can just give the cloak to Eli. Bri is almost as sneaky as me."

He pulls the invisibility cloak out of his pocket and hands it to Eli. "Sorry, you're going to have to crouch down… This cloak was apparently made for smuggling small children and house elves."

Eli takes the cloak from James, running his fingers over the fabric, and ogling at the cloak in his hands. He drapes the cloak over himself and lets out a giddy laugh when he realizes he's invisible. "This thing is awesome!"

"Are you lot ready to go?"

Freddie grabs Brittney and gives her a quick kiss. "Alright, now I am."

I let out a laugh as I roll my eyes. "Let's go…"

As we leave, someone flicks me on the ear. I roll my eyes again as I lean over to James and whisper, "I'm not so sure that letting Eli be invisible was such a great idea…"

James smirks as he looks around for Eli. "Hopefully we don't lose him in the school… We would never find him…"

After a grueling and hunger-filled hour and a half trip back to the castle, we finally make it back onto the castle grounds. It takes us a moment, but we finally manage to make it out of the crowd as they all usher into the great hall. Once we are free from the other students we are able to sneak back to Gryffindor tower in a single file line, with Freddie in the lead and Brittney behind him, pulling him into the shadows to hide whenever necessary, and then following them is me, hopefully being followed by Eli, then James at the flank.

It only takes us a few moments to get back to Gryffindor tower since we don't run into any straggling students or professors wandering the halls; Freddie didn't even need to bring us through any secret passageways to get there. When we all get inside the Gryffindor common room, James and I usher the others into the Heads common room, jumping back in surprise when we find Al and Landen already there. Al gives us a smirk as he takes in the looks on our faces. "Freddie and James aren't the only ones who know secret passages here…"

I shake the surprise off my face and let out a laugh. "No, I guess they're not… Well! Now that everyone is here, I have some things to talk to you about. We'll start with Andromeda."

The atmosphere in the room immediately changes from lighthearted to tense at the mention of her name. Freddie's expression darkens as he walks over to my bed and takes a seat on it and Landen narrows his eyes as he stares at the ground. I lean back against my wall, crossing my arms and clearing my throat as I do. "I'm going to need help, from all of you, to keep an eye on her. Follow her around, listen to her conversations, just watch her closely because I have a hunch, and it's only a hunch right now, that she might be recruiting students for my dad…"

I wait in silence for everyone to process what I've just said. After I feel that I've waited a sufficient amount of time, I clear my throat again and turn my attention to Eli and Brittney, who are both looking around the room at the others, trying to understand their reactions. "Bri, Eli? I'm going to need you two to do a lot of the following and observing since you aren't in any classes here. I, and James if he wants, will be shadowing her at night during patrol hours."

Freddie chimes in. "What do you want me to do?"

I tap my chin as I run through the many things I might want him to do, nodding when I finally decide upon one. "I want you and Al to follow Castor."

"What about Arowena?"

I look over at Landen with wide eyes and my voice hits a new note when I yell, "EXCUSE ME?!"

Landen and Al both nod solemnly, both watching me carefully, as they try and gauge my reaction. "Oh, she's back alright…"

I place my hand on my forehead and shake my head as I take a moment to try and regain my composure. Although I haven't completely sorted through all my thoughts on this, the others are staring at me expectantly, so I nod my head absentmindedly and stammer through my response. "Oh, um… Yea… Al and Freddie will follow her too, I guess… I don't want anyone following any of them alone, either. You must always have at least one person with you, okay?"

They all nod their agreement, so I continue. "Also, I want you lot to write down the names of any of the students who ask about 'joining us Death Eaters', alright? I want to have as much of a heads up about who we could be fighting as possible. Oh, and you aren't allowed to actually fight anyone here. I don't want to give anyone more of a reason to hate us."

Landen holds up his hand and looks around the room a bit angrily. "Er, why did everyone else get a person to follow except for me?"

"I'm actually glad you asked. That leads me to my next point... I didn't give you anyone to follow because I have something else for you to do. I need you to help me continue with my occlumency lessons."

He looks around the room again, clearly a bit shocked. "Why me?"

I let out a laugh and shake my head. "Does it matter?"

James nods and crosses his arms across his chest as he stares intently at Landen, who has noticed James' staring and is now wearing a large smirk. "Yes, I think it does matter."

"Well it shouldn't. Now, I don't know about you lot, but I'm ruddy starving and we've missed dinner by about five minutes. I think James and I should go get some food from the kitchen and bring it back up here. Does that work for you all?"

As if on cue, Brittney's stomach grumbles loudly, followed closely behind by Al's. I suppress the urge to laugh as I look at the both of them clutching their stomachs. "I'll take that as a yes… Jamie, are you coming?"

"Why don't you ask Landen to go with you instead?"

I shrug my shoulders as I look over at Landen and smirk. "Alright, fine. Landen do you wa-"

James jumps up off the floor and pushes me out the door. "Oh shut it, you prat. Let's go."

Before James has gotten me out in the hall, I call out over my shoulder, "AL! You're in charge! Keep them all in this dorm! We should be back in an hour!"

Once we get out into the corridor, James stomps ahead of me with a huff. I follow behind him, once again stifling the urge to laugh, as we walk down the corridor in silence. We don't talk the entire way to the kitchen, which is starting to annoy me. I just can't understand why he is being such a child right now…

After running into Azuri in the kitchen (It turns out she works here during the year and at the Raghnalls during the holidays), and loading up lots of food into the invisibility cloak, realizing as we do that this plan wasn't thought through very well, we wander back down the corridor side by side in continued silence.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, I grab James' arm and angrily pull him to a stop. "Out with it already! Why are you so sodding upset with me?"

He drops the cloak and throws his hands up angrily. "WHY DID YOU P-"

I clasp my hand over his mouth as I look around. Once I've determined the coast is clear, I drop my hand from his mouth and shake my head. "We may be Head Boy and Head Girl, but we can still get in trouble for being out this late."

He glares at me for a moment then takes a deep, calming breath. "Why did you pick Landen to teach you occlumency?"

"Well, let's see... Because I couldn't have him following Andromeda, he has history with her, and I couldn't have him follow Castor or…" I grimace at the next name, "…Arowena, he has history with both of them as well. Plus-"

He shakes his head and cuts me off. "But why not me?"

I roll my eyes as I pick up the cloak and gesture for him to continue walking with me. "Because, when it comes to me, you're a bit of a protective." He opens his mouth to say something, but I hold up my hand and continue. "I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but Landen is a bit more… objective so, when things get a bit sketchy, I know he's not going to get upset about it. Well, I mean, he might get a bit upset, but not to the point of me needing to stop."

He raises an eyebrow and gives me a worried look. "Is it really that bad?"

I nod as we round the corner to Gryffindor tower. "Honestly, it's terrible." We get into the Gryffindor common room and I sigh. "Look, you really want to know how bad it is? Fine. Meet us in the Room of Requirements tomorrow night at eleven."

He nods as we walk into the Heads common room. As soon as the portrait swings shut, Al, Freddie, Brittney, Eli and Landen come running out of my room and snatch the cloak of food from my grasp. They lay it out on the floor and immediately begin digging in to the food, only pausing to breathe every so often.

After everyone has had their fill of food and scattered around the Heads common room, all lying around, I take a step forward and clear my throat. "Alright, Eli and Bri, this is going to be where you two sleep from now on. All you other Gryffindors are welcome here too, but Al, you're going to have to make your way back to your own room from now on. Not that I don't love having you here, but your roommates are probably going to start getting suspicious if you don't show up to your room at all this year."

He looks around at the others. "Can I stay tonight?"

I shrug my shoulders and look at James. "I don't see why not. Is that alright with you Jamie?"

James nods before walking into his room and shutting the door. Al gives me a curious look as he looks from James' door back to me. "What is his problem?"

I shrug my shoulders again. "I honestly don't know… But don't worry about it. You all better get some rest. We have classes bright an early tomorrow morning. If you need anything, you know where I'll be."

We all say our good nights and I walk into my room, leaving the door open just in case anyone needs anything. I crawl into bed without changing out of my clothes and immediately drift off to sleep.

So now you know what Ariana thinks Andromeda is up to! Pretty crazy, right?

As always, I want to thank my readers who took the time to leave a review for the last chapter, for those who added this story to their alerts, and to everyone who has stuck with this story from the beginning.

Also, I would absolutely positively love to hear what your thoughts and opinions are for this chapter! :)

Thanks!

-Tx :)